A chipmunks reunion 2
by Tryingtowriteprostyle
Summary: Finally, here it is, folks. The final chapter. Sorry it took so long. please, enjoy how the reunion ends. Also, be on the look out for next story 'the fourth munk 2.0', the squeakquel world version of the fourth munk story.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter one

"Thank you, Chicago! You've been a wonderful audience!' Brittany shouted into the microphone hanging from her ear. The chipmunks were playing a charity concert in Chicago. All proceeds would go to the make a wish foundation and to the Chipmunk Charity, for various purposes. Dave, Vinny, and the kids had accompanied them. Miss Miller had stayed in Hollywood to watch little Max and Karen, and Xavier didn't come because he had some major company business to attend to. "Now, does anyone wanna hear an encore?" She asked. "I mean, we still got lots of energy to burn. So, I'll ask again. Do you wanna hear an encore?!" "Yeah!" The audience shouted back in a hurry. But then, a strange chant began to sweep out of the crowd. One the chipmunks hadn't expected. "New munks, new munks, new munks." The crowd called. "Oh, I see. You wanna hear an encore, but not from us. You want our kids. Well, hard to say I blame you. After all, they killed it, didn't they?" "Yeah!" The crowd cheered. The new munks had opened their parents show in Chicago. They had played and performed extremely well. When they walked off the stage at the end of their set, they walked off to a furious round of applause. "Well, I don't have a problem bowing out to them. What about you guys?" Alvin asked. The other munks shook their heads no. "Well, let's get them back out here! Come on, guys!" The kids ran back out on stage. "Say, Alvin." Simon said, an idea popping into his head. "Yes, Simon?" "Something just dawned on me." "What's that?" "Well, one day, these guys will succeed us as the chipmunks." "Right." "Well, judging from what I've read in magazines and online, I don't think enough people know their names." "Say, your right, Sy. And that's a real shame." 'Well, you know what we gotta do, don't you?" Cash asked. "Of course I do. We gotta do our duty as parents and introduce them to the world. So, let's get started." Alvin walked over to Eliza. "This little pink wearing wonder girl is one of my and Brittany's pride and joys. She's our little rock star princess. Give it up for Eliza!" Eliza waved vigorously to the crowd, for which she received a roar of applause. "Next up, we have colored real whiz kid. He's got an I.Q. of a hundred and ten, and he's not even ten. Make some noise for Tony!" Tony adjusted his glasses and smiled at the crowd. The crowd roared again and a few girls in the crowd whistled at Tony. "Next, we have the emerald siblings. Ones a blonde bombshell who can cook as well as she rocks, and the other, well, he has the taste buds of an iron chef and some serious skills on the mic to boot. Give it up for Olivia and Ben!" Ben waved and Olivia blew kisses. Once again, the crowd roared. "And last, but definitely not least, we've got the prince of the guitar and the princess of dance. He can shred the strings with the best of them, and she's light enough on her feet to give the lord of the dance a run for his money. Raise the roof for Tom and Helen!" The crowd exploded into applause. "There you have it folks. Now, the meet and greet is over. So, I give you, once again, the new munks!" The crowd roared once more. As the chipmunks began to walk off stage, Tom grabbed the nearest microphone and yelled "The chipmunks, everybody!" The crowd roared louder than it had before. Once the munks were off stage, Simon turned to Alvin. "Where in the world did you come up with those descriptions of the kids, Alvin?" "honestly, it just kinda came to me." "All of that 'just came to you'?" "Well, yeah. You know, just off the top of my head. But, it's not like I was very far off, right? I mean, Britt and I do see Liz as our princess and she's a rock star in her own right. Tony's definitely qualified to be called a genius. Ben and Olivia are awesome cooks. And Tom can seriously tear up some strings, and Nell's a good dancer, with a ton of moves." "Yes, that's true." "So what's the problem?" "Well, it was the way you said it. You made them sound larger than life. It was, you know, over the top." "Simon, after all these years, you seriously haven't figured out that that's the way Alvin does everything?" Cash asked. "Hmm, you have a good point, Cash. But, even so, I'm afraid that, with an introduction like that, their egos may get over-inflated and they'll get cocky. And, while this crowd may or may not see that cockiness, what about future crowds? You know one thing people don't like is a cocky celebrity and if the kids get cocky, that's what they'll get and then they'll…." "Sy, Sy, Sy! Breathe man. Your over analyzing this. I mean, you know the kids as well as I do. You know, they're not that kind of band. They've got egos, sure, but I know they're smart enough to keep them in check. We taught them to remember that ourselves. So, don't worry. They're not going to become hated by anyone. I promise you that. So, just chill, okay?" "Yeah, your right. Guess I over reacted." "Man, Sy, what got into you?" Alvin asked. 'It's probably my fault." Jeanette said. 'Simon and I watched a special on TV last night in our hotel room. It was a parenting special. I watched it because I was wondering if it could give me any advice or ideas I haven't thought of when it comes to raising Tony and Karen. Simon didn't really want to watch it at first, so I talked him into it. The program turned out to be very intense. Maybe a little overly intense for it's subject material. Anyway, that was the last thing that Simon and I watched on TV before we feel asleep. That program must've sunk deeply into Simon's mind over the course of the night. So much so that your introductions of the kids set him off the way you just saw. So, I'm sorry, Simon. I didn't mean for you to become this way when we watched the program. I'm sorry, honey." "It's okay, honey. It's not your fault. Like Cash said, I was over analyzing. And maybe I did absorb a little too much of that program, but that's not your fault. It's mine. So don't apologize anymore, okay?" "But.." "Hey, I got an idea.' Alvin said. "Why don't you both just forget about the whole thing? Cause after all, the program didn't do you any good any way. Because when it comes right down to it, only you can decide what's best for your kids. The only piece of advice, idea, whatever you wanna call it, that you need to keep in mind is 'don't be a jack ass and treat them badly'. We've all seen on TV and in newspapers and stuff what happens when parents mistreat their kids. So, just keep that one idea in mind and do whatever your parental instincts say is the right course of action, and you'll be good to go." "Wow." Was all Jeanette could say. 'Alvin, where did you get all that? No, wait, let me guess. Just off the top of your head?" "Well, pretty much, yeah. But, I do believe that. Just don't mistreat your kids and do what your heart tells you is right, and you should make a pretty good parent." "If only those people who mistreat their kids would do that." Cash said. "Yeah.' The rest of the munks agreed. Vinny, who was standing a little ways away from the munks, sighed and shifted around a little. "What's wrong, Vinny?" Dave, who was standing beside her, asked. "It's nothing." 'Come on now, Vinny. I know you better than that. I know something's bothering you, so tell me what it is." "Well, it's just that, seeing them talk about parenting like that made me think about my own parents." "Oh, I see." "Don't get me wrong, I love Xavier and my aunt Cheryl, my mother's sister who raised me. It's just that…" "I understand, Vinny. I wish we could find them for you." "I do too, Dave. I really do."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Eventually, the new munks finished their set and the original munks ran back on stage to help them close out the show. Finally, the entire family was gathered in the back stage area. Everyone was doing their part to pack up the equipment. The charity organizer came along, with a huge smile on his face. "You guys were on fire tonight. I honestly didn't think your kids would be so popular." "What do you mean by that?" Eliza asked, becoming irritated. "I didn't mean any disrespect. I just didn't know what to expect of you guys. Your parents told me you were good, but I still had my doubts. I thought you'd just amount to a warm up for the crowd and then your parents would be what lit the fires under them. But, I was wrong and I apologize. I should've taken your parents word for it and I didn't. So, for that, I'm sorry. But, on the upside, when you guys got back up there, merchandise sales started skyrocketing. We sold out of everything." 'Everything?" Eliza asked. "Everything. All the dolls, hats, coats, cds, everything. I was lucky that I got this cd right here for my son when I did. Man, I'll tell you, my boy would've killed me if I didn't get this for him." The organizer said, holding up a cd. "Well, so long as you got it, all is well in the kingdom, right?" Alvin asked. "Yeah. Or, at least it should be. I mean, all he asked for was cd… anyways, I've way off topic. I came to tell you guys how we did. Figured that you'd like to know." 'Lay it on us." Cash said. "How much money did we raise?" "In ticket prices alone, a quarter of a million dollars. Add on the merchandise sales, and you have an extra hundred thousand. So, in total, we made a grand total of three hundred and fifty thousand dollars tonight." Alvin whistled upon hearing the total. "Not bad for one night's work." Simon said. "No, it's not bad at all. Now, all we have to do is split the total down the middle and send the two charities their respective one hundred and twenty-five thousand." The organizer said. "Well, I know both charities will get plenty of use out of this money." Cash said. "I hope so. By the way, what exactly is your charity trying to do anyways?" "Right now, we're working with Franklin industries to try to cure the X.P. condition." 'X.P. condition?" "Basically, it makes the person afflicted with it's skin super, no, hyper sensitive to sunlight and the U.V. radiation from it." Simon said. 'In other words, it makes them kinda like vampires. Their bodies can't withstand the sunlight. If they go into sunlight for a minute, even if they're in the shade, they'll begin to burn alive." Alvin said. "Just one minute?" "Sometimes, not even that." Cash said. "In some cases, it's instantaneous. And it causes a load of damage. Like, imagine the worst sunburn you've ever gotten from spending hours at the beach without any sunscreen or anything on. Now, imagine that happening just like that." Cash said, snapping his fingers. 'Damn." Well, I hope the money we made tonight can lead to them having a normal life someday." "We'll do our best to make sure it does." "And we all know what happens when you do your best." The organizer said, alluding to the fact that the chipmunks and their children were heroes in Hollywood, because they defeated the twisted Wilshire siblings and their bomb. "Well, I'd better be heading home. I hope we get to work together again someday." "Us too." Cash said. The organizer nodded and left. "Well, we'd best go back to the hotel and get ready to head home in the morning." Simon said. ( two days later) "Come on, Grandma! They just released the latest issue and I don't want to be last one in line." Tony yelled. Today, Vinny was charged with watching the kids while the munks worked on a music video for their version of lady Gaga's song 'telephone'. Xavier still had some work to do at the company, Miss Miller had already promised a friend of hers she'd help make brownies for an up coming bake sale that said friend would be in and Dave had to discuss some band related business with Todd. This left Vinny as the only immediate family member available to watch the kids, which was why she was watching them alone. Right now, Tony was leading the pack to the book store. The latest issue of a book series he liked had just been released today and Tony was in a very big hurry to get it. "I'm going as fast as I can, dear." Soon, the group reached the bookstore and got in line to get the book. 'Man, I didn't know this series was that popular." Tom said, looking at the line. 'It's all the rage among people like me." Tony said. "Really? So, why isn't Nell clamoring to get one?" "Because, I already called ahead and had them put a copy on hold for me." Helen said, calmly. "What? Nell! Why didn't you tell me you were ordering ahead?!" Tony asked. "Don't worry, I ordered you one too. You just have to pay for it.' "Gladly. Thanks, Nell." "No problem." "Hey, guys!" The new munks heard a familiar voice yell. They looked to see Harry, Charlene and their kids coming towards them. Nikki, the one who had yelled, was in the very front. "Hey, guys." Tom said. 'Hey, Roxy. Looking good." He quickly added. "Thank you, Tom." "You here to get the new book too?" Zack asked. "Yup." Olivia said. "Great, we can all wait together." Charlene said. 'Well, actually, I called ahead and put two copies of the book on hold. One for me and one for Tony." Helen said. "Well, I heard there's still a wait, even if you call ahead." Holly said. "Well, guess we just hang out till then." Ben said. "That's fine by us." Holly said, grabbing onto Ben's arm. Just as the group began to settle in to wait, Tony heard another voice yell for him. "Hey, Y-not!" Tony turned to see a human girl his age, with fiery red hair, coming up to him. "Only one person ever calls me that. How are you, Raquel?" "Not to bad. Waiting for the book?" 'Yup. You?" "You know it." "Umm…" Vinny started. "Oh, sorry, Grandma. This is Raquel. She's a friend of mine from science club at school. When school was open that is. Anyways, this is Raquel, and Raquel, this is my Grandma Vinny." "Nice to meet you, ma'am." "Same here. Um, did you call Tony 'why not'?" "Yup. It's Tony backwards." 'Oh, I see. But, why do you call him that?" "Cause it's funny." "I see." Raquel nodded and turned to Tony. "Okay, Tony. You know I wanna see'em. So where's the pictures of this new baby sister I've hear about?" "Right here." Tony said, pulling out his phone and going to the pictures section. 'Aww, she's so cute. What's her name?" "Karen Vinny Seville." "Vinny?" 'She's partially named after grandma here. Mom and dad were gonna go with Karen Jessica, but changed their minds and decided to name her after Grandma instead." "I see." As Vinny watched the kids talk with their friends, she remembered back to when she was their age. She remembered introducing her friends to her aunt Cheryl. The thought of that suddenly made Vinny wish that she could find her parents so that she could introduce them to her friends and family. "No, Vinny. Stop thinking about them. Their gone. Your going to have to accept that. There's no point in dwelling in the past. It's not good for you." Despite her thoughts, Vinny couldn't stop a sad look from coming upon her face. Tom noticed it. 'Are you okay, Grandma?' 'Huh? Oh, yes, honey. I'm fine." 'Okay." Tom said back. However, he thought "She may say she's fine, but I know better. Something's up and she just won't tell me. And that worries me. I'd better to talk the others and probably dad and grandpa Xavier about this later."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Later that day, Tom found himself in a prime position to talk to his dad about Vinny. Cash was reading the newspaper in the living room, Katrina was busy putting up the last of the laundry and Helen was in her room, reading her new book. Which meant that Tom could talk to his dad and have no one else hear. He thought it best not to involve anymore people than absolutely necessary, just in case this turned out to be no big deal. Tom thought about how he wanted the conversation to go for a moment and then walked into the room. "Dad?" "Yes, Tom?" "Can I talk to you?" "Of course, son. What do you wanna talk about?" Cash asked, putting down the paper. "Grandma Vinny." Tom said. This aroused Cash's interest. "What? Is something wrong with her and only you know about it?" "I don't know exactly. I hope not, but…" "Just tell me what's bothering you about mom." "Okay. Well, at the bookstore earlier, I saw Grandma Vinny with a sad look on her face. And I mean really sad. Like, on the verge of tears sad. And the thing was, she was surrounded by happy, laughing kids. And, a far as I know, it's almost impossible to be sad in a situation like that. So, it must've been something really depressing." "She might've been thinking about dad." "I thought that at first too. But, then I remembered how Grandma Vinny reacts to thinking about Grandpa Tom. It seems like she can't help but cry when she thinks about him. Like, even the slightest thought of Grandpa makes Grandma shed a few tears. But, that's understandable. When you love someone that much and you lose them, you can't help but cry when you think about them. But, at the bookstore, Grandma looked like she was on the verge of tears, but she never actually cried. So, I don't think that she was thinking about Grandpa. But, unfortunately, I can't think of what she was thinking about. It must've been sad, obviously, but, maybe, not that sad. It was like Grandma was right on the edge of the of 'the cliff of tears' and about to fall off, but something was holding her back just enough to keep from her falling. But, like I said, I can't think of what that kind of thought would be about. So, since your older and wiser than me, I thought maybe you could think of something." "Hmm, well, to be honest, Tom, you've thought this out about as far as I could with that much information." "Hmph, I bet if Uncle Alvin was around to hear you say that, he'd probably say something involving calling me your mini-me again." "Yeah, probably. And speaking of Alvin, I guess we should call on him and everyone else and get their opinions in this. After all, we're drawing a blank and if something's up with mom, everyone would wanna know about it." "Yeah. I just wish we had more to tell them." "Well, let's think about this for a second more. See what we come up with." "Okay." "Let's see…Well, like you said, it probably wasn't dad she was thinking about. I remembered how she reacts and you were right on the money. Mom can't help but cry, even if just a little, when she thinks about dad. And you said she didn't cry at all at the bookstore. So, maybe it was a sad thought that wasn't sad enough to make her cry, like you said, or maybe, and this might be a stretch, but, maybe it was a very sad idea, one that could make her cry, but it just happened to have some aspect about it that gave her a small glimmer of hope. An idea that gave her a feeling of comfort just strong enough to hold back the tears." "But, what kind of thought is that? A sad idea that can also comfort you a little bit? Ugh, I'm getting confused." "Yeah, it is a little confusing. Not to mention the fact that we haven't had to try figure something like this out for a while. Guess our detective skills are a little rusty. So, let's see if the addition of some extra brain power helps. I'll go call everyone." just then, the phone rang. "Cash, can you get that, honey?" "Yeah, sure. Hang on just a second Tom." "Okay." Cash picked up the phone. "Hello? Oh, hey, Grandpa. No, we don't have anything planned for later, why? Oh, really? Well, that's good. Yeah, sure, we'd love to. I'll round up everyone else for you. Nah, it's not a problem. Okay, see you in a little bit. Um, hey, while have you on the phone, can I ask you something? Well, I wanna know, have you seen mom yet? Oh, I see. Well, there might be. But, I think it's something we should talk about in person. Yeah, that'll work. Okay, we'll see you then. Okay, bye." cash turned to Tom after he hung up the phone. "That was Grandpa Xavier." " I figured out that much. What did he want?" "I'll tell you in a second. But first, Hey, Kate! Nell! Could you come down here please?" Katrina and Helen quickly joined Tom and Cash in the living room. "What do you need, honey?" Katrina asked. 'Well, that was Grandpa Xavier that just called. He said he just got done with all the work he's been doing the past few days and he said he's ready to cut loose. He said he wanted to out somewhere and have some fun, preferably with the family. So, I told him that we didn't have anything planned and that I'd call the others for him. So, what do you say guys? Wanna hang out with Grandpa tonight?" "Sure." Katrina and Helen said at the same time. 'Great. Okay, I'm gonna go call everyone else. And Tom?" "Yeah, dad?" "Get your mother and sister up to speed on what we've been talking about for me, please. I'll tell everyone else." "Um, okay. Mom, Nell, listen." Later on, at Jesse's arcade. "So, what's going on Cash? Is something wrong with Vinny and she's not telling me about it?" "We think so. See, here's the deal." Cash explained to Xavier what was going on. 'I see. But, why hasn't talked to me? I'm her father, more or less. Why can't she talk to me?" "I think she's afraid of hurting you." Dave said, finally speaking up. "what do you mean, Dave?" Cash asked. "Well, see, I think this all about Vinny's parents." Dave explained what had happened at the concert and what he thought was Vinny's reason for not talking about it, especially not with Xavier. "So, you see, Xavier, she loves you very much. As such, she doesn't want you to think that she doesn't want you anymore. And that's what I think that she thinks that talking about this with you would do." "Well, it's time to set a few things straight then. Vinny!" Xavier called. Vinny had been sitting by the counter a little ways off, talking with Jesse. 'Yes, Xavier?" Xavier and the of the family walked up to Vinny. "I need to ask you something." "Sure, what do you need, Xavier?" "do you want to find your parents?" "W-what?" "Come on, now, be honest. It won't hurt my feelings. I completely understand. So just tell me." "D-Dave, you told them?" "Yeah, but, they already figured out something was up anyways." 'Come on mom. Just tell us and grandpa the truth." Alvin said. Vinny's eyes watered a bit. 'Yes, I do want to. I've tried so hard to forget about them. I had Xavier as a father figure. I thought that was all I needed. So I tried to forget about them but…" "It's okay, Vinny. We get it. And now.." Xavier started. 'We're going to help you find them." Cash finished. "But.." Cash put a finger to Vinny's lips. "Mom, this family has been hurt by abandonment too many times already. True, it ended with us, since we'd never give up our kids. So in effect, the vicious cycle has been broken already. But, there's still some loose ends that absolutely need to be tied up. So, that's what we're gonna do. We will find them, I swear it. All you have to do, is say the word. So, please, say it." Vinny thought for a moment and then looked her family in the eyes. "Do it. Please." "You got it, mom. Alright, guys. Let's get to work."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

The chipmunks and family, naturally, immediately wanted to help Vinny. However, it was getting late. So, everyone thought it was best to go, get a good night's sleep and begin to develop a plan in the morning, since that was when everyone would have the most energy. And so, that is what they did. The next day everyone met at Xavier's and began to concoct a plan. Katrina brought up the idea that, by using her and Helen's powers, they could try to probe Vinny's mind for long buried memories that could give them a clue as to what her parents looked like. Everyone thought this was a good idea, so Katrina and Helen went about setting up everything so that Vinny would be as comfortable as possible. This was in an effort to make it easier to probe Vinny's mind. They figured, the more relaxed Vinny was, the easier it would be to get into the deepest parts of Vinny's mind. Once Vinny was relaxed, and assured that this was no trouble for anyone, Katrina and Helen got to work. They had Vinny go to sleep, again as an effort in getting as deep into Vinny's mind as possible, and began to scan Vinny's memories. Meanwhile, the others sat in the dining room, away from the den where Katrina and Helen were working, so as to give them the privacy and quiet they needed. "So, what should we do until they get done?" Alvin asked. "Well, we could try to dig up some leads. Maybe some medical and or hospital records from the time mom was born or something." Simon said. "Simon, did you forget that we had to go have a birth certificate made for mom?" 'No, I remember, Alvin. It was a long process, but in the end, it was all worth it. Because, once she had that birth certificate, mom could get things she couldn't before. Like her driver's license." "But even so, we had to give a really vague answer to the place of birth question. And why is that? Cause, for all we know, mom could've been born in the woods like we were. Because we couldn't find any of those records.' "That's true, Alvin. But, remember this. Back then, we were merely rock stars. Popular rock stars, according to our fans and many magazines, but still just rock stars. Meaning we were still the kind of people that wouldn't cause other people to start chomping at the bit to help us do the kind of digging we needed to do. Even if those people were fans, there would inevitably be a point where they would lose enthusiasm and probably quit. And we unfortunately don't have any friends that work with those kinds of records. At least, none with the kind of free time needed to dig that far back and sort through everything. But, now, we're regarded as heroes, and the enthusiasm for helping heroes is far greater than that for helping rock stars. In other words, we can use our new status to our advantage, in a good way." "Well, yeah, your right, we could. But, how do we go about doing it?" "By going to the source." Cash said, pulling out his cell phone. 'Let's see, should I call Cam and have him pass a message along or should I call Doc Samson directly?" 'Well, Doc might be working today, so it would probably be best to call Cam." Eleanor said. "Yeah, your probably right, Ely. And, Cam has said that he doesn't mind me calling during his work hours. Okay then. I'll call Cam." Cash opened his contacts list, scrolled down to Cam's name and hit send. Cam soon picked up on the other end. 'Hey, Cam, it's Cash. Yeah, been a while, sorry about that. What? Uh, well, I can't come check out your new stock right now. Maybe later, okay? Okay. Anyways, listen. I need to ask you something. Is your brother working right now, or is today his day off? Oh, tomorrow is? So, he's working right now. Well, do you know when his lunch break is? You do? Perfect. Could you call him then and ask him something for me? Ask him does he know anyone that worked in the hospital a little over forty years ago. Yes, I know that's a long time, but it's important. We've decided to try to find mom's parents. Yes, that's right. So, we're trying to find out if , just maybe, mom's parents had mom in the hospital and the records were lost over the years. If that's the case, we're hoping someone was there at the time and could remember something about that day. Hopefully, something that could tell us what mom's parents looked like. Yes, I know it's a stretch, but it's all we've got to go on right now. Please, buddy. I don't wanna call him during work hours, but you're his brother. I don't think he'd mind. Plus, you know the number you can call to get him at work, I don't. All I have is his cell phone number, and since he's in the hospital right now, he's probably got it turned off. So, if you could…Thanks buddy. Yeah, just call me back. Okay, talk to you in a bit. Okay, goodbye." "So, what now?" Alvin asked. 'Well, Cam's gonna call me back and let me know what Doc Samson says." " Yeah, I know that. I mean, what do we do until he calls back?" "Come up with other ideas." "Like what?" "Well, let's think about this for a second. We need some answers about mom's past. Answers that mom herself can't give us. But, maybe someone who's been around mom longer than we have might have some answers. So, let's think, who's known mom longer than us?" Simon said. 'Well, there's Grandpa. He was around while mom's aunt Cheryl was still alive, as far as we know. Maybe she said something to him about mom's parents." Alvin said. "Good, Alvin. Grandpa is a good start. We should pay him a visit." "Yeah, definitely. We could get some information from him and we can catch up. A visit from us to him has been over due for a while." Theodore said. "Good point, Theodore. But, one source might not be enough. Let's see, who else has known mom longer than us?" Cash asked. "What about mom's friend Allie?" Simon asked. 'Allie?" Alvin asked. "you remember her, don't you, Alvin? She was the chipmunk that was house sitting for mom when we first met her." "Oh! That Allie! Yeah, she might know something. Mom's said that her and Allie go way back, so maybe Allie got the chance to talk to great aunt Cheryl too." "Okay, that's two. Not a bad start." "Let's pray Cam calls back and gives us a third source." Cash said. Just then, Cash's phone rang. 'Hello? Oh, Doc. I was expecting Cam to call back. No, no it's fine. So, did he ask you what I needed him to ask you? Okay, and? Wait, you do? You know someone? What? Your mentor? No, that's fine. As long as he's got a good memory. He does? Perfect. When can we meet him? Today? Okay, um, you give me the address, call him and him know the situation and that someone's on their way and we'll send one okay. I'm ready to take down the address…Okay, got it. Thanks, doc. Talk to you later." "Okay, so who's going?" Alvin asked. "Well, some good fighters should stay here, just in case one of our old enemies decides to show up." "Right, but any combination of us could take them. So, who'll go?" "Hmm…Ah!' Cash pulled a quarter out of his pocket. "Okay, heads, me, Simon and Jeanette go. Tails, Alvin, Brittany, Theodore and Eleanor go." "Okay." Cash flipped the coin. It came up tails. 'Guess we're going." Alvin said. 'Here's the address." "Okay. Be back in a bit." Some time later. "well, did you find anything, Kate?" "No. Sorry, honey. We scanned and scanned, but couldn't find anything. Mom has absolutely no memories of her parents." "I see." Just then, Alvin and he gang returned. 'So, what did doc's teacher have to say?" "Well, we didn't learn a lot from him, but he did tell us a little something about what they looked like." Alvin said. "Tell us about it." "Okay. Well, let's see…"


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Alvin suddenly stopped talking mid-sentence. "Well, Alvin?" Simon pressed. "Give me a sec, Sy. We a lot of traffic on the way back and I got so frustrated, navigating through it, that I guess it scrambled my brains. Give me a second to get my head together." "Okay." Alvin took a moment to gather himself. "Okay, I think I've got it." "Then lay it on us." Katrina said. "Right. Um, by the way, Kate. Did you and Nell find anything in mom's memories?" "No. All we found was a whole lotta nada. Mom has no memories of her parents. Which, I would take to mean, that she was separated from them at a very young age." "So it seems that, whatever Doc Samson's mentor was able to tell you, is all we have to go on, Alvin.' Jeanette said. 'Right, no pressure. Alright, here goes. Okay, first off, the doc's mentor's name was Doctor Richard Kepler. Now, here's what Doctor Kepler had to say. He said that he didn't interact with mom's parents directly. He said he was the newest member of the maternity ward at the time, so while he didn't talk to them or help in mom's delivery, he was allowed into the room to get an appreciation for the kind of work he was getting himself into. Now, while he didn't talk to mom's parents, he said he did interact with mom in a way. He said that he was the one who carried mom down to the nursery after she was born. And, he said, he stayed in the nursery to check on the other babies. He said he stayed in the nursery long enough to give Grandma and Grandpa time to get down to the nursery. He said that he saw them staring at mom through that little window they have. That's when, he said, he got a really good look at them." "You know, when I heard that, I had to wonder just where he was looking when he was in the delivery room. If he didn't see them well enough in there, then he must've been staring into the wall or something." Brittany said. "Yeah, I kinda thought about that too, babe. But, I thought it'd be kind of rude to bring it up. He was being nice enough to bring us into his house and tell us all he knew after all." "Same reason I didn't bring it up." Alvin nodded and then continued. "Anyways, he said he got a good look at them. He said they looked young. Maybe in their early twenties, he said." "So, if they're still alive, they'd be in their early to mid-sixties now." Cash said. "Yeah, probably." Alvin said. "Yo, Simon, take this down." Cash called. "Already on it, Cash. Let's see, early twenties at time of mom's birth, possibly in early to mid sixties now. Okay, got it.' "Okay, go on, Alvin." "Okay. He said Grandma was really pretty and she had long, dark brown hair." "How long?" Simon asked. "Doctor Kepler said it ran down to about the small of her back." "How'd he remember that?" Simon asked. 'Well, if you saw someone with hair that long, could you easily forget it?" "Good point. Okay, let's see. Long, dark brown hair. Level with small of back. Got it. Okay, continue, Alvin.' "Well, he said Grandma had bright blue eyes." "Got it." "And he said that Grandpa had green eyes." "Guess we know now where Theodore gets his eye color from." "Yeah, guess so." "Is that all he remembered about Grandpa?" "Pretty much. I asked him that same question. He said that was it. He said, other than the green eyes, Grandpa was kinda average looking. For a talking chipmunk that is." "I see. is that everything?" "Yup." "Did he happen to know where mom's records are?" "Nope. No such luck." "Oh well. At least we have a general idea of what they looked like now." Cash said. "Yeah. So, what do we do now?" Alvin asked. "How about a field trip?" "Field trip? To where?" "Grandpa's retirement village." "Oh right. Maybe Grandpa can tell us more." "Right. So, let's get everyone together and head out. Where'd the kids go?" "Out to the back yard, to play around." Xavier said. 'Guess they thought that there was nothing for them to do here, so they decided to get out of the way and go play outside. Oh well. No harm done." Cash walked outside. "Hey, kids!" He yelled. The kids stopped playing. "Yes, uncle Cash?" Olivia asked. "What'd you need, dad?" Tom asked. 'Get yourselves together. We gotta go see Grandpa Chipmunk in his retirement village." "Well, okay. Just promise you won't let anyone pinch our cheeks. That's really annoying and it really freaking hurts too." Eliza said. " Don't worry. Your faces are safe. Now come on." "Right." The kids followed Cash back inside. "Grandpa, we're going to need the RV." " Right. Geneva!" "Yes, Xavier?" Geneva asked, coming down the stairs. She had been up stairs cleaning the whole time. 'We're going out. We'll be needing the RV. Could you go get it started, while we get ourselves together?" "Sure." Geneva quickly went and acquired the keys to the RV and went to go start it. "Hey, somebody wake mom up." Cash said. Eleanor walked over and gently shook Vinny. "Come on, mom. Wake up." Vinny's eyes slowly opened. " 'Yawn' Oh, that was a good nap." Vinny looked around to see everyone getting ready to leave. "Um, Ely dear, what's going on?" "Just head for the RV mom, we'll tell you on the way." "Well, alright." The Seville family headed outside, locked they're respective cars, and waited for Xavier to back the RV out to the street. Once he was in the street, he went and opened the side door. "Hop in." He said. Everyone but Simon headed for the RV. 'Simon, what's wrong? What are you just standing there, dear?" Jeanette asked. "Well, I was just thinking. We have two leads left. Grandpa and Allie. I was thinking, wouldn't it be best to cover both at the same time? As in, divide into two groups and tackle both leads at the same time? One group goes to see Grandpa, the other pays a visit to Allie? I think we'd get the most information we could, and quickly too, that way." "Very true, Simon. Okay, you and I will go see Allie.' Cash said, stepping away from the bus. "But, Cash…" Katrina said. 'Don't worry, Kate. We won't be long. We know the way to grandpa's village. We'll catch up in no time." "Well, okay." "I'll come with you." Jeanette said. "No, Jean, you go see Grandpa. I'm sure he'll want to see Kary and, should she start crying, it's best to have you around, since you're the only one who can make her stop crying." Cash said. "Cash is right, dear. You take Kary and Tony to see Grandpa. We'll be along shortly." "Well, okay. We'll see you later then. But, um, I think Kary wants a goodbye kiss from her daddy first." "Sure thing, sweetheart." Simon kissed Karen's cheek. The young munk giggled happily in her mother's arms.. 'You be good for mommy, okay?" Simon asked his daughter, jokingly. Karen giggled again. 'Alright, I'll see you later." "Bye. Wave bye-bye to daddy, Karen." Karen shot her tiny hand up and waved it wildly. This made everyone laugh. "Alright, let's go, Simon. We'll take my car." "Okay." Each group got into their respective vehicle and left. Along the way to the village, Eleanor explained everything to Vinny. Especially the description of her parents. "Wish we had more to tell you, mom." "Don't worry. This is enough to give me a good picture of them." "Well, let's hope Grandpa can make that picture better." Alvin said. Later on, at the village. "Grandpa!" The kids shouted as the ran to the elderly chipmunk. 'Oh, it's so good to see everyone. No, wait, everybody's not here. Where's Simon and Cash?" "They went to take care of something else. They'll be here in a bit." Brittany explained. 'Okay, I see." The munks chatted with Grandpa for a few moments, then Theodore spoke up. "Grandpa, do you mind if we ask you something?"


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

"Of course not, Theodore. What do you want to know?" "We wanna know if you know anything about mom's parents." Suddenly, Grandpa Chipmunk had a very stern look to face. "So, you finally decided to seek them out, eh, Vinny? Hmph, I had a feeling this day would come." "You sound upset." Vinny said. "No, not at all. Just having one of those 'it's about time' moments. I was hoping you'd do this sooner, but, it's all alright. So, what exactly do you want to know about them?" "Well, do you know exactly what they looked like?" Alvin asked. "Unfortunately, no. You have to understand, I didn't come around Vinny, and by association her aunt Cheryl, until Vinny and Tom started dating. From what I remember Cheryl telling me once, Vinny's parents had been gone for a very long time before Tom, and by extension me, came into the picture." "How long?" Alvin asked. "Well, Cheryl told me that she'd raised Vinny all her life. From the time she was a baby to the time she met Tom. So, let's see. Vinny was about fifteen when she had you boys, right, Vinny?" "Well, almost. I was still technically fourteen at the time." " Oh, right. Your what, forty three now?" "Almost." "And the guys just turned twenty-eight, if I'm not mistaken. So, let's see. Forty three minus twenty-eight comes to fifteen. However, we have to shave off a few months. So, really, it was about fourteen and… three quarters." 'That sounds about right." "Okay, I can't wait anymore. I gotta ask the question. You were a teenage mom, Grandma?" Olivia asked. "Yes, but, keep in mind that I was living in the woods at the time. The world of animals, dear. The whole 'teen mom' stigma didn't really apply there." 'And, remember this, Libby. I was nineteen when I had you. I was over the legal, yes, but, I also wasn't completely out of my teens. So, technically, I was a teen mom too. And so were your aunts." Brittany, Katrina and Jeanette nodded. "Hmm, well okay. If it all works, then there's no problem. Oh, uh, sorry for the interruption, Grandpa." "It's okay, honey. It gave me some time to think. I think I've got the time that needs to be firmly established figured out. Let's see if this sounds right. Vinny was fourteen and three quarters years old when she had the boys. She was thirteen when she met Tom. And you boys were born in 1995, so your mom and dad met in 1994. So, back up thirteen more years and the year Vinny was born and left with Cheryl by her parents ends up being 1981." "So, we're searching a timeline from 1981 to now, in the year 2023. Forty two years long. Which is exactly how old mom is." "Looks like we were right to use mom's age as a backtrack timer." Theodore said. "Wait, you already had this time line figured out?" Grandpa asked. "Not exactly. We knew mom had no memories of her parents, so we knew mom had to be very young when she was abandoned. We just didn't know how young. Thanks to you, Grandpa, we know now that mom was abandoned, pretty much, as a newborn." "Well, Alvin, let me tell you something else. Vinny wasn't abandoned by choice." "What?" "Just like how Vinny didn't have much of a choice when she had to give you boys up, Cheryl once told me that Vinny's parents didn't have any choice in giving her up. She didn't tell me exactly why they had to give her up, but she did tell me that they didn't have a choice." "Whoa, same circumstances." Jeanette said. "Man, when Cash said that this was vicious cycle, he didn't know how much of a cycle it really was." Theodore said. "Talk about the past repeating itself." Alvin said. Vinny seemed saddened by this news. Karen and max, who happened to be looking at Vinny from their mothers' arms, reached for their grandmother. It was as if they could instinctively sense that something was bothering her and they wanted to cheer her up. They began to grunt as they tried to reach their grandmother. This made Brittany and Jeanette take notice. "I think they want mom to hold them." Brittany said. "And right at this very moment too. It's almost as if they know she's sad and they want to give her a hug or something to cheer her up." Karen and Max grunted again as they tried to wiggle out of Brittany and Jeanette's arms in order to get to Vinny. "Well, we'd better give them what they want then." Brittany said. Jeanette nodded. The mothers walked their babies over to Vinny. "Here, mom. They want you. I think they know your sad and they want to try to make you happy." Brittany explained. Vinny's eyes teared up as she took the youngest of her grandchildren into her arms. But they weren't tears of sadness. They were tears of happiness, caused by an odd kind of joy. A joy that came from knowing that even the youngest of the family, the ones who weren't old enough to understand anything about the world, still loved her and loved her enough to instinctively want to help her cheer up when she was sad. Vinny's tears grew larger as she felt Karen and Max's tiny arms wrap around her neck. "Thank you, you two. I love you too." "I wish I had a camera right now." Eleanor said. Brittany, who was standing next to her said 'use the camera on your phone." 'Oh, right." Eleanor pulled out her phone and took a picture of the scene. 'Got it. I'm putting this into a protected file on my computer when we get home." "Send us all a copy." Katrina said. "Consider the e-mail already sent." "Hey, anyone notice that Kary's hug seems to be tighter than Max's?" Eliza asked. "Well, she does have a special bond with her." Helen said. "Special bond?" "Yeah, the bond created by being named after her. Ever notice that Kary seems to be closer to Grandma Vinny than she is to Grandma Miller?" "Oh, yeah. Yeah, I have. And that comes from her being named after grandma?" "I think so." "Guess that explains why Max is so tight with Grandpa Xavier. Cause he's named after him." "Maxwell Xavier Seville and Xavier Franklin. Xavier and Xavier. Yup, that's probably why." And so the visit continued. Meanwhile, Cash and Simon were walking deep in the woods. They had left Cash's car, with all available safety systems turned on of course, on the side of the road some time ago. Now, they were headed for Allie's house, which Simon knew the location of. "Hey, Simon." "Yeah, Cash." "Forgive me for asking this, but, are we there yet?" "Just about. If I remember right, it's just on the other side of that hill up ahead." "Okay. Um, one more thing." "What is it?" "This may sound stupid but, Allie's a chipmunk right?" "Yes, why?" "Well, she doesn't look like us. First of all, she has a tail. And, she has a lot more fur than any other girl chipmunks we know." "Well, think about this, Cash. There are only two species on this planet labeled as sentient. Humans and anthropomorphic chipmunks. Now, humans come in a variety of different sizes, skin colors and etcetera. And, since we're so human like, why shouldn't we have some variations too?" "So, in other words, Allie's a chipmunk like us, she's just a different variety." "Exactly. Her ancestors must've come from a part of the world where that kind of bodily form would make it easiest for them to survive. And at some point, Allie must've moved here, where she doesn't need that kind of form, but she obviously can't get rid of it. So, she stands out. But, it's not like that's a bad thing." "No, of course not. All the differences in people is what makes the world great. It'd be boring if everyone looked the same. I was just wondering cause I'd never seen a chipmunk like her before. Where do you think her type comes from?" "I honestly don't know, Cash. But, we can ask Allie herself that, cause here we are."


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Cash and Simon walked up to the door of Allie's house and Cash knocked on it. "Coming!" They heard. Allie soon opened the door. "Hi, Allie." Simon said. "Simon! Cash! So good to see you again. What brings you out to these parts?" "We came to see you." Cash said. "Well, isn't that flattering? Well, come on in." Cash and Simon entered Allie's house. "Please, sit down.' Allie said, gesturing to some chairs nearby, while closing the door. Cash and Simon sat down. "Can I get you something to drink? All I have is water and tea, but they're both good." "No, we're alright.' Simon said. Cash nodded. "Okay. Well, what shall we talk about? Can't have a good visit without any conversation. So, what should we talk about…Oh! I know. Let me ask the most obvious question. Where's Vinny and the others?" "They're visiting Grandpa, dad's dad, at his retirement village." "And you two came here instead? Now, isn't that suspicious? Come on, boys. You know you can be honest with me. I mean, how many years have we known each other Simon? And, Cash, didn't I leave a trustworthy first impression on you when we first met? I certainly tried to. So, you know you can trust me. So, tell me, honestly, why are you here?" "We need to talk to you about mom." Simon said. "What about her? Did something happen? She wasn't in another car accident, was she?" "Thank God, no. That one time was scary as hell. We never want to go through that again. So, we're happy to say no, she wasn't in another car accident." Cash said. "Oh, thank goodness." "I didn't know she even told you about that." Simon said. "When we get together, Simon, we catch up on everything." "Okay, fair enough." "So, if nothing's wrong with her, what do you need to talk to me about her?" "We need you to tell us something pertaining to her." Simon said. "What is it? I thought you knew everything about her already. So, what could you possibly need me to tell you about?" "We need you to tell us everything you know about mom's parents." Cash said. "Ah, I see. So she's finally decided to look for them, huh? Well, it's about time. I've told her a number of times that she should seek them out. It's about time the necessity of it finally clicked in her head. Anyways, I'll tell you everything I know, boys. I honestly don't know a lot, since Vinny's parents were long gone before I met her. But, I'll tell you whatever comes to mind. So, let's get started. Fire away with your questions." "Okay. First off, though you never got the chance to see them in person, did mom and great aunt Cheryl have any pictures of them hanging around their house?" Simon asked. "No. I don't remember ever seeing any pictures of them." "Do you know why?" "Kind of. I asked Cheryl about that once. She told me that that was a request by Vinny's parents." "Grandma and Grandpa asked Great aunt Cheryl to not hang any pictures of them?" Cash asked. 'that's right. I didn't get it either. So, I asked Cheryl what their reason for that was. She told me that they said it was for Vinny's own good that she not know anything about them, including what they looked like." "And why was that?" 'That Cheryl wouldn't tell me. All she said was that I was too young to understand. Now, at the time, I believe I was ten. Now, I was a pretty sharp young girl. I've always prided myself on being sharp and understanding. I may not be able to reach the level that you two are at, but I've always tried my best to understand things. And I told Cheryl that. That I believed that I was pretty smart for my age. But, all she said was that I wouldn't understand. The way she said that, it was like she wanted to tell me, or more likely Vinny, but she couldn't. But, it wasn't like she couldn't tell me because she didn't know. She obviously did. It was like she couldn't tell me because.. Well, it was like she had made a promise not to tell." "Grandma and Grandpa made Aunt Cheryl promise not to tell mom anything about them?" Simon asked. "It seemed that way." " Add another question we need answered to the list." Cash said. " 'sigh' Another question. We really need to find Grandma and Grandpa and get some answers." Simon said. 'Easier said than done. I wish we could find out where they went." Cash said. "Well, I may have an answer for that one." Allie said. 'What? You do?" "I think so." "Well tell us." Simon said, trying to remain calm. "Okay. It just now came to me, to be honest. Let's see. When Vinny and I were about eleven, I was over visiting Vinny. Now at one point, Vinny and Cheryl were in the kitchen, making lunch for everyone. I was poking around the living room, looking for something to read or something to do until lunch was ready. I happened to find some travel brochures stuck inside a book I picked out. They looked kind of old. Unfortunately, however, I didn't get the chance to read them. Because, just as I was about to open one and read it, Cheryl came back in the room, to ask if I wanted anything special for lunch. She saw me with those brochures and rushed over and took them from me. And before I could ask why she had those brochures, she was asking me where I got them. So, I told her. She then walked over to the window, while mumbling something that sounded like 'I thought I got rid of these a long time ago. I'm so lucky they're not around to see this. They'd never let me hear the end of it if they saw this.' She then tore the brochures up and threw the pieces out the window, where the breeze took them away. I never got an explanation for all that." "I see. But, do you remember where the brochures were talking about?" Cash asked. "Yes. It was Alaska." "Alaska!?" "The capital city, Nome, if I'm not mistaken." "Grandma and Grandpa went to Nome? Why Nome? Better yet, why Alaska?" "That I don't know. But, I have watched enough of those crime shows on TV with Vinny to know one thing. If someone gives up something very important to them and then runs off to some far away place, they're usually running away from something, or more precisely, someone." "So, maybe they gave mom to aunt Cheryl in an effort to protect her from whatever, or whoever, they were running away from." Simon said. "I like to think that." Allie said. "I'm not a parent myself, but, I like to think that a parent wouldn't give up their child unless they felt that they had to. Like how Vinny did when she had to give up you and the others, Simon." "Yeah, I know what you mean." "We should call Alvin and the others." Cash said. "Right. But, I don't think we get coverage out here. We'll have to head back to the road." "Right." 'Does this mean your leaving?" Allie asked. 'Well, to find out what you knew was why we came here. But, we could stay a little longer." "No, that's alright. Don't worry about me. In fact, I want you to leave. Because I want you take to what you heard from me to the others and then go find Vinny's parents. And, I want you to do it as soon as possible. So go on, go!" "Yes, ma'am! Let's go, Simon!" "Right. We'll see you later, Allie!" "See you later, boys. And, good luck!" "Thanks! Now let's go!" Cash said. Cash and Simon began to run back to the car. They soon arrived. "I'll call Alvin." Simon said. Simon pulled out his phone and called Alvin's number on his contacts list. "Make sure to ask him what they found out from Grandpa." "Right." Simon pressed send and he soon reached Alvin. "Alvin, it's Simon. Yes, we just got done. Okay, tell me what you found out…okay, that's good. Now, here's what Allie told us." Alvin freaked out when heard where Vinny's parents might be. "Yes, I'm serious. Listen, we'll be there in a little while. I'll explain everything then."


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Simon and Cash eventually arrived at Grandpa's retirement village. They quickly located the rest of their family and recapped their conversation with Allie. "I had no idea that that incident with the brochures even happened. And to think that I was just in the other room. I was so close to finding out something about my parents and I didn't even realize it." Vinny said. "It's okay, mom. Cause we're gonna fix that." Alvin said. "Exactly. All we need to do is go to Nome." Cash said. "You make it sound easy, Cash. Nome may not be the biggest city in the country, but it's still pretty big. And we don't know what part Grandma and Grandpa live in. So we'd have to search the whole city for them, because, if they are running from something or someone, I doubt that they're phone number is listed in the phone book or something like that." Simon said. "Yes, but, Simon, unless you forget, we've gotten pretty good at searching a whole city quickly." Alvin interjected. "Yes, but, that city we're so good at searching, Alvin, also happens to be Hollywood. You know, our home town? Any body can search their home town easily. But, Nome isn't Hollywood. It's a totally different city. And, on top of that, we've never been to Nome before. Heck, we've never even been to Alaska before. Nothing wrong with the state, mind you, it's just that every time we were planned to come in on a tour, there was a bad snow storm going on. And that prevented us from ever going to Alaska." "Yeah, I know that." "Then why don't you get it? We're going to go to not only a city we've been to before, but it's also in a state we've never been to before." "I get it, Simon. I know it ain't gonna be easy. But, mom's worth it to me. And se must be worth it to you, cause, for all your griping, I don't necessarily hear you arguing against going." "I'm not. I'm just trying to get you and Cash to realize the seriousness of this. You two are taking this way to easily." "We're taking it easily so we can conserve our energy for the eventual search, Sy. Something that I suggest you start doing too." Cash said. "Dang. Big bro puttin' little bro in his place." Eliza said. "I'm not trying to make Simon look bad, Eliza. I'm just saying that we're going to need all the energy we can get for our search for Grandma and Grandpa once we get to Nome. Getting all excited now is just a waste of valuable energy. So, just try to relax, okay, Sy?" "Oh, okay." "Man, Sy, what's with you lately? Your so, I don't know, jumpy lately." Alvin said. "Yeah, and seems that smallest things set you off nowadays. Like the TV program incident at the Chicago concert. Stuff like that didn't use to bother you. It was like water off of a duck's back. But, now…eh, I'm with Alvin. I'm wondering why your so jumpy too." Theodore said. "Well, I hate to say this but…" "It's because of Karen." Jeanette said in Simon's place. "It's Kary's fault? Oh, I get it. Kary's been having trouble sleeping and Simon's been staying up with her?" Alvin asked. "Yes. I have no idea why she's been having so much trouble sleeping lately, but she has, and Simon's been selflessly staying up with her, doing whatever he has to do to get her back to sleep." "Ah, I see. Man, I'll tell you, Sy, I feel your pain. I went through the same thing with Liz." "Hey, I said I was sorry about all the sleep I made you miss when I was a baby, daddy." Eliza said. "Heh, Olivia was the same way." Theodore added, not giving Alvin time to react to Eliza had said. "Ben too." Eleanor chimed in. "Tom and Helen weren't really bad, but Kate and I had a few dozen sleepless nights because of them during their first year." "And I'm sure they've all apologized for that." Eliza said. Eliza then looked around and noticed that no one seemed to be listening to her. "Hey, we said we were sorry!" She yelled. Suddenly, all the munks turned to Eliza. "You know, she's right. They have apologized, and really, we did it out of love so, do we really have the right to complain?" Brittany asked. The other munks shook their heads no. "Finally, you all get my point. Jeez, make a girl get on a loud speaker next time, why don't cha?" "Okay, we're sorry for ignoring you, honey." Alvin said while tickling Eliza's ribs. 'No! Stop it, daddy!" Eliza squealed. Alvin soon stopped and then looked at Simon. "Seriously, though, Simon. If loosing sleep has made you this edgy, then maybe you should let Jeanette take over the night watch on Karen. Or, at least, take a nap at least once a day. Whatever you gotta do to catch up on your sleep, do it. Cause, like Cash said, we're going to need all the energy we can get when we start hunting for Grandma and Grandpa." "I'll think of something, Alvin. I promise you that I won't be half asleep or on edge when we finally get down to the search." "Good." "Well, I suppose we should head home and get ready to go to Nome as soon as possible." Theodore said. "Yeah, but only after Sy and Cash go and visit with Grandpa." Alvin said. Alvin turned to his black and blue clad brothers. "It's only fair guys." "We know, Alvin. Come on, Sy. Let's go chat with Grandpa for a bit." "Right." "In the meantime, Alvin, why don't you call Todd and let him know we'll be leaving town for a while pretty soon." "Okay, I'll do that. Now, go talk to Grandpa. He was wondering where you guys were." "Right. Let's go, Sy." No sooner had cash and Simon took five steps towards their Grandfather, than Alvin's phone rang in his pocket. Alvin pulled his cell out of his pocket and checked who was calling. "Huh, it's Todd." "Well, that's convenient." Simon said. "Yeah, sure is." Alvin flipped open his phone to answer the call. "Hey, Toddy. Perfect timing. I was just about to call you. Yes, we did. We hit major pay dirt. We have a solid idea of where Grandma and Grandpa are. And, that's why I was about to call you. We're gonna be heading off to find Grandma and Grandpa real soon so…wait, what? Are you serious? Now? Of all times?…It's another charity concert? Like the one in Chicago a few days ago? Well, I guess we might be able to do it. Where is it?…Are you kidding? You have to be kidding me. It's really in Nome, Alaska? Man, that's just way too convenient. Because, that's where we think Grandma and Grandpa are. Well, no, I don't think so. We could search for them before and after the concert. We'd have plenty of time. Okay, sure. We'll leave tomorrow. Okay. Yeah, I'll tell the others. Okay, bye.' Alvin told the others what Todd had told him. "Seems that God is smiling down on us." Cash said. "Yeah, sure does. This is the best luck we've had in a while. Thank you, Lord." Alvin said. "It's about to get better, uncle Alvin." Tom said. "How's that, champ?" "Well, a second after Todd called you, I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket. So, I answered it. It was Roxy. She said that her mom and dad just cashed in some of their vacation hours and were ready to go somewhere. She was calling to tell me that she'd be gone for a while, but then she brought up the fact that her mom and dad hadn't decided where to go yet. So, I asked her if they, and she, and the others would want to come to Nome with us to look for Grandma and Grandpa. She asked them and they said yes. She said that they're ready to go whenever we are." "Man, that's awesome. We already had thirty-six eyes ready and now we've got fifty-two. With that many eyeballs, Grandma and Grandpa would have to have magic powers to avoid being found by us. This is great. Cash, Sy, hurry up and go hang out with Grandpa so we can go home. We've gotta strike while our lucky is still hot." "Okay. Let's go Sy." "Right. We'll try to keep the visit short."


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

The next day found the Seville family, along with Harry, Charlene and their kids, at the airport, waiting for the chipmunks' private jet to finish being loaded with all their luggage and equipment. "How much longer until it's all loaded?" Harry asked. Simon looked over his shoulder and out the window behind him, to look at how much luggage was still left on the luggage cars. "Not much longer. There's just a few more things they need to load. We should be ready to board any minute now." "Okay. Uh, hey, Simon?" "Yes, Harry?" "Um, not to drag up old, unpleasant memories but, you remember, back when I was still a bad guy, and I helped that idiot Ian kidnap the girls?" "Yes, I remember. I was trying to forget, as a show of respect for you and your transformation from bad to good, but, yes, I still remember. What about it?" "Well, first off, thanks for the respect. I probably don't deserve it, but thanks. Now, as for why I brought that up, well, I was just thinking about something." "What is it?' 'Well, I was thinking about how much Rex, Zack and Jake love comic books. And, how much Rex, in particular, loves to read Captain America." "Yeah, Tony does too. He's more into Iron Man, but still, he has a pretty good collection of old Cap comics." "Maybe I should tell Rex about that. Maybe Tony's got some that Rex hasn't seen before." "It's possible. He does have some pretty old ones. Some are so old that they're probably collectors items." "In that case, I have to tell Rex. He'd go crazy for the chance to read some classic, collectors grade, comics." "I'm sure Tony would let him read them any time." 'Well, that's good. Now, back to what I was talking about, I was thinking about how much Rex loves those comics. Mostly because he's been bugging me lately to take to this one comic shop in town, to see if they've got any old classics for him to buy. Anyways, when I thought about that comic book, I thought about what Captain America could do. And one skill of his that sticks out in my mind is his ability to throw that shield of his. You know, how, if he can't throw it straight at his target, he can still throw it perfectly, every time, so that it bounces off walls and things, until it hit's the target from out of nowhere. And when I thought about that, I thought about that incident all those years ago. I remembered that you did something like what Cap does with his shield, only with a trash can lid, when you and Theodore fought me." "Oh, yeah. I remember that." "Good. I'm glad you do." "Why's that?' "Because I want you show me how to do it." "What?" 'Please? It would really impress Rex, and the other kids, if they could see they're old man hurling things like Captain America. So, do you think you could show me how to do that?" "Um, well, I'm not sure, Harry. But, I could try. But, why do you want to learn how to do that so bad?" "Well, lately I haven't been able to spend much time with Rex, and I'm afraid that he might be losing some of his faith in me. So, I want to learn how to do something that will really impress, and maybe restore a little of the that faith." "I see. Well, if it'll help, I'll certainly try to teach you. But, not until after we get back from this trip. Got to focus on one serious task at a time." "Of course. I wasn't asking you to do it right now. Just, whenever you have the time." "alright. I promise you, Harry, I'll do my best to help you learn how to throw things just like good old Steve Rogers." "Thanks, Simon. Um, you know what Cap's real name is?" "I do read more than text books and things of that nature, Harry. 'sigh' Unfortunately, your not the first to think that. Do I really seem that way?' "Yeah, you kinda do." "Man, I got to do something about that. Um, by the way Harry." "What?" "What's been keeping you from spending time with your kids? I know you work at the label everyday, except weekends of course, but, you still get off at a time that would leave you with plenty of time to spend time with them. So, tell me, what are you doing that keeps you so busy?" "Well, that's something that Charlene and I agreed to tell everyone on the plane." Simon looked over Harry's shoulder, because saw that Alvin signaling to him that they were good to go. "Well, get ready to talk, because it seems that we're all set." "Great. Let's go.' The two families loaded onto the plane. They were soon up in the air. The pilot let them know when they free to move about the cabin. "Well, now's as good a time as ever, right honey?" Charlene asked Harry. "Yeah, I think so." "Alright then." Charlene stood up. "Everyone, Harry and I have an announcement. We waited until now because we wanted to let all our closest friends know at the same time." "Well, it's nice to know that you consider us your closest friends. So, what's this big announcement?" Alvin asked. "I'm pregnant." Charlene said. The chipmunks nearly fell over, and Harry and Charlene's other kids literally did. "Mom!" Nikki whined. "How long have you been keeping this from us?" "Only about three weeks. Well, really only one. Cause, we didn't know for sure until we got the results last Saturday from the tests we had done two weeks ago. See, I had started to feel the same symptoms I'd gotten when I was pregnant with all of you. So, when I told your father here, he said that I should go get checked out. And I did. They ran the tests and told me that it'd be a while before the results would be in, since the hospital's lab was slammed. We got the results last Saturday, like I said, and then decided that we wanted to let everyone know, but we wanted it to be when we could have everyone together. So, we waited. So, you see, we didn't mean to hide anything from you, sweetheart. We just wanted to share the good news with everyone at once." "Well, okay. We forgive you. So…what are we getting?" "Straight to the point, huh? Well, alright. According to the tests, it's Jake and Holly all over again. We're having fraternal twins again." "Cool!" Roxy shouted. "Congrats, guys." Tom said. "Yeah, congrats. By the way, got any ideas on names yet? Eliza's a good choice for the girl." Eliza said. "No, we haven't thought of any names yet, but thanks for the suggestion, Liz." Charlene said. 'No problem." "So, think you can handle having ocho ninos, Harry?" Alvin asked. " I think I can. I mean, after all, you guys do it. So if you can do it, and since I'm just as experienced as a parent as you are, then why shouldn't I be able to do it?" "Well, you have a point, but, um, we only have two kids each, Harry." Simon said. 'Yeah, but, sometimes you guys act like second fathers to the other kids. Like, uh…" Harry to looked around. He noticed Tom, who was closest to him. 'Like, take Tom here for instance. I know Cash is his real dad, but, I've seen him with you, Simon, a couple of times and, by the way you were acting at those time, if I didn't know any better, I would've sworn that Tom was your son. Same goes for Alvin and Theodore. I've seen them do it too. And I'm sure Cash plays second dad to your kids every now and then too. And the girls have probably acted more motherly than 'auntly', if that's a word, around the kids that aren't theirs. So, in essence, your all raising eight kids, just not all at once." "Huh, I never noticed that. You're a lot more observant than you look, Harry." Theodore said. 'I'll take that as a compliment." "Yeah, I'm with Theodore. I never noticed that either." Cash said. "All I can say is, remember the old saying. 'It takes a village to a raise a child.' Simon said. "Amen, brother." Alvin said. "I second that amen." Harry said. "Hmph, you know something, Harry. If somebody had told me years ago, that you and I would be standing here, talking and agreeing with each other like this one day, I would've told them they were nuts." Alvin said. "Honestly, Alvin, I probably would have too." And so the ride continued. The munks eventually arrived in Nome. They quickly went to their hotel and checked in. 'Okay, so, now what?" Tom asked. "Now, we start looking. We'll split into groups of four to five and the scour the city." "Does it matter who we team up with?" Roxy asked. "No, it doesn't. So, if you wanna pair up with Tom, Roxy, do it." "Yes sir!" "Alright, form up and roll out. Remember, we've got our concert tomorrow, so let's try our best to get this done today, so Grandma and Grandpa can come to the concert." "Right!" And so the figurative army of people split into smaller groups and spread out across the city. They searched for a few hours before Alvin and his group got hungry and called Cash. 'Hey, bro, it's getting' close to dinner time. You wanna reign everyone in and go eat somewhere? We can start looking again right after we're done eating." "Yeah, okay. Let's call everyone back. It's best to do stuff like this on a full stomach anyways." So the gang met at a restaurant that Theodore had recommended. He remembered seeing it on a show on the food network before, and he remembered how all the customers the showed on the show raved about the food at this restaurant. So, he recommended it, even though he had never been there before. After the families had eaten, they sat at their table, pondering what to do next. "Well, I guess we should get going. Got get back on the hunt." Alvin said. "Yes, but, the way we're doing it…I don't think it'll produce any results, unfortunately. I think we should take a minute and fine tune the plan." Jeanette said, while gently rocking Karen, who was in the middle of drinking her dinner bottle. "Can't argue with the lady with the baby. So, any ideas on what we should sure up?" Alvin asked the table. 'Well, I know one thing." Olivia said. "I know that I need some fresh air. So I'm gonna outside." "I'll go with ya." Tom said. "Fine, go ahead." Cash said. The young black and green clad chipmunks excused themselves from the table and headed outside. Theodore and Eleanor looked up at the T.V., which was mounted to the wall, behind Cash. The weather report scared them. 'Hey, guys, look. The weather lady says that a big snow storm is gonna roll in just a little bit." Cash turned around to look at the report. "Yeah, I can hear what she's saying now. She says that it's gonna snow hard and it won't let up until about five o'clock tomorrow morning." "Man, I hope they got us special place to hold the concert, cause people aren't gonna come in to just any place. Not with all that fresh snow on the ground." Alvin said. "Yeah. And, you know what else this means, don't you?" Eleanor asked. "No, what?" "It means that we'll have to postpone our search until the day after tomorrow." "Oh, yeah. Yeah, we'll have to do that. Oh well, it'll give us more time to plot our next move. Right, Cash?" Alvin asked. "Yeah." Meanwhile, outside, tom and Olivia sat on a bench outside the restaurant. "'Brrrr.' Do you feel that, Tom?" "How cold it just got?" "Yeah." "Yeah, of course I feel it." "You think a snow storm's gonna come in?" "Probably. But, that's kind of a good thing." "How?" "Well, when's the last time we got to play in some fresh fallen snow? And I mean the real stuff, not the manufactured snow, like at Mr. Derringer's resort." "Um…." "Can't answer that one can you?" "Oh, I had an answer but it left me, and just as I was about to say it too." "Well, I remember fine. It was about four years ago." 'Oh yeah. When we all went to Aspen on vacation." "Right. Man that was fun." "You and Liz almost knocked each unconscious, what with all those big snowballs you were throwing at each other's head." " That was the fun part." "Tom…" Olivia stopped short, because she noticed a strange woman heading towards them. She was fairly short and wore an old cloak to keep warm. The cloak is what drew Olivia in. "Hey, Tom, check it out. Doesn't that ladies cape look like the one we've see Grandma Vinny wearing in those old family pictures." "Yeah, it does. Almost identical actually." The kids watched the woman walk up to a vending machine nearby. They watched her dig around in her pocket for a moment and then pull a dollar. When she pulled out that dollar, because she wasn't wearing gloves, the kids could see the woman's hand. "Hey, Libby look." "A furry hand. Just like ours. You think?" "Only one way to find out. Hey!" tom yelled to the woman. The woman's head jerked up. "Hey there! We need to talk to you!" The woman turned and began to walk away quickly. "Hey, come back here!" Tom called. Tom started after the woman. "Tom…" Olivia called. Tom didn't stop. The woman noticed tom running after her so she started running, in order to get away. "Tom, stop! Your scaring her!" Olivia started to run after Tom. When the woman noticed that both young munks were now following her, she began to run even faster. She called out to a man nearby, who was wearing a cloak similar to hers. "Charlie! Run! They've found us!" She yelled as she ran past the man. The man quickly ran after the woman. Now both people were trying to escape the young munks. 'Hey, come back here!' Tom yelled. "We need to talk to you!" Olivia yelled. Olivia had stopped trying to make Tom stop chasing the woman. She knew he wouldn't listen to her. So, she thought, if you can't beat'em, join'em. The two young munks chased the pair up over a nearby hill, towards the woods off in the distance. Just as they reached the crest of the hill, the rest of the Seville family exited the restaurant. They quickly noticed the two kids running off into the horizon. "Tom!" Cash yelled. "Olivia!" Theodore yelled. The father munks tried to catch up with their kids, but as soon as the reached the other side of the street, the wind began to howl and snow began to fall heavily. "Darn it! Why now?!" Theodore yelled. " We don't have any choice. We have to go back to the hotel. If we don't we're going to buried in the snow out here." Cash said. 'But what about the kids?" Theodore asked. "They're smart. They'll find a cave or something to hold up in until the storm passes and we can go out and find them." "And when we do, they are grounded!" Eleanor said. "And how!" Katrina agreed. "Come on, girls save your energy for when you'll need it. Come on, let's get back to the hotel." Alvin said. Helen looked out to the horizon. 'Be careful you two." She said before walking off to join the rest of her family. Meanwhile, tom and Olivia had chased the man and woman into the woods. They were still running hard. "Oh come on! Stop running already!" Tom yelled "Yeah, we just wanna talk, Grandma!" Olivia yelled. This sentence made the woman stop running, which in turn made the man stop running. "What did you just call me?" The woman asked. "I called you Grandma. Cause I think you might actually be my grandma." Olivia explained. "And I guess that you're her husband, which would make you my grandpa." She then said to the man. 'One way to make sure, Libby." Tom said, stepping towards the couple. 'Tell me something, you two. Does the name Vinny Chipmunk mean anything to you?" The woman gasped. 'How do you know that name?" "That's our grandma's name." Tom said. 'Oh my God. So, Vinny's had….Then that means that we're…" The man looked up. "Save it, Alice. We need to get out of this storm first. Come on, there's a cave over there. Let's hold up in there until the storm passes." "Right. Come on, kids, you too. You'll be safe in there with us."


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

The Seville and Chipmunk families quickly reached their hotel. While the others were busy shaking the snow off of themselves, Roxy looked out the nearby window at the snow. "Man, it's really coming down." She muttered. "Worried about Tom, Roxy?" She heard from behind her. Roxy turned to see her brother Zack standing behind her. "Of course I am. Aren't you worried about Olivia?" "Naturally. She is my girlfriend after all. But, I'm not as worried as you." "And why is that?" "Man, sis, mom must've dropped you on your head when you were little, cause your memory sucks. You've forgotten this soon? Alright, let me refresh your memory by saying this. I'm not worried because Tom is a survivor. He'll do all he can to stay alive. And, on top of that, he's a high level protector too. He'll do whatever it takes to make sure that Libby makes it too. Trust me, they'll both come back when the storm's over." "But, look at it out there." Zack grabbed his sister's arms, forcing her to stay in place and not turn back to look out the window. "Look at me, Roxanne." Roxy looked her brother in the eyes. "They will come back. They will survive this storm. Because I'm sure that they'll use every bit of brainpower they've got to make sure that they make it. And, while they might not be the smartest of the Seville kids, they're both very clever. Especially Tom. You know better than all off us that he's not just very clever, he's extremely clever. He'll figure out a way to get through this, with or without Libby's help. And I'm not bad mouthing my girl. I'd never do that. I'm just stating the truth. Just have faith, Roxy." "You should listen to him, Roxy." They heard. The young munks turned to see Rex coming towards them. "Zack is right, Rox. You just have to have faith. Even if only in Tom alone. But, if your still worried, then pray." "That's a good idea. Will guys pray with me?" "Sure." The brothers said together. Meanwhile, out in the woods, Tom and Libby sat in the cave with the two elderly chipmunks that they thought were their great grandparents. Currently, the elder munk known as Charlie was trying to start a fire with some tree branches that he'd ripped off of a tree just outside the cave entrance. "Come on, come on." He said, while he tried to get the fire going the old fashioned way. However, he wasn't having any luck that way. "oh, forget this. I don't need to impress anybody. I just need to get the fire going." Charlie reached into his pocket and pulled out a cigarette lighter out of his pocket. "Does he smoke?" Olivia asked the elderly chipmunk known as Alice. "He used to. No he just keeps that as a reminder, or in case of an emergency." "Like now?" "Like now." Soon, Charlie had the fire going steadily by using the lighter. The flickering light from the fire lit up the cave. "Okay, now that we can see better, how's about taking off those hoods?" Tom asked. "Yeah, I wanna see what you look like." Olivia added. Charlie and Alice first looked at, then nodded to each other. They reached up and pulled the hoods of their capes, which they had been wearing to obscure their faces until now, down. Tom and Olivia took in their sight. "Look at her, Tom." Olivia said, pointing at Alice. "yeah, I see. Like an older version of Grandma Vinny." "Speaking of her, how is Vinny?" "She's fine right now. She's looking for you. And that's why we're here. We're helping her." "I see. So, who exactly are you? I know your Vinny's grandchildren, you already said that. But, I'm just wondering who you are exactly." "I'm Thomas Oliver Seville." Tom said, almost proudly. "That's your full name?" Alice asked. "Yup. I'm named after my Grandpa Tom, who was Grandma Vinny's husband. Unfortunately, he's no longer with us. He's been dead for years. In fact, he died a week before Grandma gave birth to their four sons." "Oh that's terrible. How did he die?" "He was shot by a hunter, while trying to help a family of rabbits escape." "Oh, such a waste. He sounds like he was a great man." "From what grandma's told us, he was. You know, and I know this may sound crazy but, I met his ghost once. It was only that one time, but still, he seemed like a really cool guy." "I see. So, what's your sister here's name?" "I'm not his sister, I'm his cousin." Olivia said. "My dad and his dad are brothers. And their both Grandma Vinny's sons." "Oh, I see. Sorry about that." "It's okay. We're so close that we get that on occasion." "Well, that's really good thing isn't it?" "Yup, sure is." "So, what's your name?" "Olivia Swan Seville. I'm named after an old friend of my mom and aunts. Her name was Olivia too." "And the swan part?" "Mom likes swans. And she said that, even when I was a newborn, at least to her, I was as beautiful as a swan. So, she named me that." "Well, that's a beautiful thought." "Yeah, I guess." "Alright, enough beating around the bush!" Tom yelled. "It's time to get down to the heart of the matter. If you two really are Grandma Vinny's mom and dad, then you should be able to answer the million dollar question. Why'd you abandon Grandma?" 'Tom." Olivia groaned. "What?" " I know we needed to ask that question eventually, but I was trying to get them to warm up to us a little before that. Make it easier for them to talk to us." "Well, screw that. I want answers and I want them now. So, out with it. Answer my question now!" "Tom." Olivia groaned again. "No, he's right, Olivia. I suppose we should come clean." Alice said. "You want to know the reason we gave up Vinny? Alright, here it is. We did it for her own good." "What do you mean by that, Grandma?" Olivia asked. "Well, you see dear, it all started many years ago. Charlie and I were just starting our lives together when we found out I was pregnant. According to the doctor's test, we were going to have twins. Two girls." "Whoa, whoa! Grandma has a twin sister?" Tom asked. 'No, unfortunately." "Eh?" "Just let her tell the story at her own pace, Tom. It's obviously already hard on her. she doesn't need you interrupting." "No, it's alright, Olivia. It was a natural response." "Well, alright. I'll let it slide. Now, please continue, Grandma." Alice nodded and continued. "Well, as I was saying, there we were. Expecting twins and neither of us had a job. We looked around and looked around and we finally found some work. But, it was for the wrong people. We didn't realize how wrong at first, but over time, it became clear that our employers were bad to bone. They were hardcore gangsters, who operated under the guise of a small delivery company. That's where we got our jobs. At that false delivery company. We were their couriers. 'sigh' It was simple work, but it paid well. All we had to do was take whatever package they handed us and take it to whatever address they told us. Then, bring back the delivery fee. That was all we had to do. But, fate has a strange way of interrupting people's lives. You see, after about four months, I gave birth to Vinny and her sister. But, her sister was born stillborn. In other words, she was born already dead." A look of shock shot across Olivia and Tom's faces. "Naturally, we were heart broken. We'd come to have our hearts set on being the proud parents of two beautiful little girls. But, instead, we only got one. But, losing Vinny's sister, who we named Claire, made us all the more determined to make sure that Vinny grew up right." "Uh, quick question." Tom said. 'Yes?' "Why'd you name mom's sister if she was born dead? I mean, most parents I've seen that happen to don't name the kid." "Well, we were different, Tom. We loved Vinny and Claire, before they were even born. We loved them so much so that we decided that it was only right to give Claire her name, instead of leaving her as a nameless corpse." "I see. Yeah, I'd probably do the same thing, now that I think about it. I pray that never happens to my future kids, but still…" "I pray it doesn't happen to them either, Tom. It's a terrible experience for all involved." Tom nodded. "Okay, go on." He said. "Okay. Well, like I said, with the loss of Claire, we became even more determined to take care of Vinny. We did the best we could, while still doing our jobs. However, it ended up being Vinny who inadvertently caused us to reconsider our jobs. You see, we had no choice but to bring her with us on a delivery once. I was feeding her, while Charlie drove the truck. Vinny was holding the bottle fairly well on her own, so I just let her hold it while she fed. I'd adjust it now then, if I saw that the milk was getting to her mouth the right way or something like that. Well, Vinny accidentally dropped the bottle, so I picked it up. The bottle landed on top of the package we were delivering, which was in between my feet. I bent over to pick up the bottle, and when I picked it up, my finger nail scratched the box. When that happened, some white powder spilled out. I noticed it and asked Charlie to take a look. The next thing he said changed our opinions of our bosses forever." "What did he say?' Olivia asked. "I said that that powder looked like cocaine." "What? There was coke in the package?" Olivia asked. "I wasn't just in the package, it was the package. The entire box was filled to the brim." "But, how did you know that it wasn't sugar or something like that, Grandpa?" Olivia asked. "Well, first off, we knew nobody shipped sugar like that. All someone needs to do to get sugar is go to the grocery store. No need to ship it like that, when it's readily available at the store. But, my second, and much better reason for saying that it was cocaine and not sugar, was that I had watched a special on drugs and drug trafficking. They showed cocaine, in it's powder form, not to some sugar. They then proceeded to show how to spot the difference between them. The powder in the package showed all the signs of cocaine and not sugar." "I see. So, what did you do after you discovered what was in the box?" "Well, first, we quickly put it together that, the entire time we had been working as couriers, we had been unknowingly shipping drugs all over the city." "Naturally, that fact horrified us." Alice added. "Which is exactly why our next move was to go to the police and turn everything over to them. They didn't arrest us, because we were obviously unwitting pawns in our employer's scheme. However, they did arrest every single member of that gang later that day. Once they went on trial, they were quickly found guilty and sentenced to twenty five years in prison." "Well, that's good." Olivia said. "It would be, if it wasn't for the last thing that the gang's leader said to us before they dragged him out of the courtroom." "What did he say?" "He said 'we'll get one day, and when we do, your dead! You and all you love! That is, if some of our friends don't get to you first!' Now, that did add on a few more years to his sentence, but it still did it's job. We became terrified. Not just for our lives, but for Vinny's too." "We were so scared that we came to the conclusion that Vinny would never be safe with us. We decided that we had to do right by her and give her away to someone who could keep her out of the path of our hunters. And we had that person do that by keeping Vinny as far away from us as possible, in every possible way." Alice said. 'That's why we left Vinny with my sister Cheryl. We knew we could trust her to raise Vinny right and honor our wishes. We left her with Cheryl and then fled to the place we thought that they would look for us." "Here." Olivia said. 'Exactly. So you see, we 'abandoned' Vinny in order to protect her. And we stayed away from her for all these years in order to make sure that that protection was secure." "Bullshit." Tom said. "Tom!" Olivia cried. "There are times when it's okay to curse, Libby, and this is one of them. Now, I can buy that story. The way you said, I know it's not a lie. And the reason you gave up Grandma Vinny, I can buy that too. But, your reason for staying away for this long, that's a load of bullshit and we all know it. I know it, Libby knows and you know it. It's BS and we all know it. Or at least, it's only a half truth. You say that to cover up the real reason you've stayed away. And that reason is that your afraid of Grandma Vinny." "What? They're afraid of Grandma?" "Yeah. They've been gone so long that they're afraid to go back. They're afraid of what they might find when they get back. They're afraid that Grandma wouldn't have any emotional attachment to them and would shun them. Maybe resent them, or even hate them. And they don't want to have to face the pain of that possibility. So, while it may have started as a way to protect Grandma, it eventually became all about their own cowardice. Isn't that right?" "Shut up, Tom! Your being rude. That's not it all and you know it." "No, it is it and _you_ know it. You just don't wanna admit it cause you've taken a shine to them." "And so what If I have? They're our Great Grandparents, Tom! Of course I've taken a 'shine' to them." "And that's exactly the problem. If you'd just step out of that little fantasy that you've going on in you blonde hair wrapped head, you'd see the truth." "Was that a crack on blondes?" "No, just an observation." "Well, here's an observation. Your being a jackass!' "Oh! So sweet innocent Olivia can curse after all!" "Why you!" "Stop it! Stop it right now!" Alice yelled. The quarrelling cousins stopped momentarily and looked at their great Grandmother. " 'sigh' Olivia, I appreciate you sticking up for us, but, Tom's right." "Grandma…" "He's one hundred percent right. Somewhere along the line, it did become more about our own fears than protecting Vinny. Now that I think about it, those gang members had ten to twenty years on us. They were in their thirties and forties back then, while we were in our early twenties….Twenty-five years is a long time. Add fifteen more years onto it and it's an even longer time. Over forty years have gone by since then. They all must be in their late seventies to mid eighties by now, if they're still alive. Surely their memories aren't that sharp. And in their present condition, what could do they do to us or Vinny?…Tom's right. We've been hiding all this time from our own daughter." "Grandma…." "Please, Olivia, don't stand up for us. We don't deserve it. Just, apologize to Tom and then join him." "Uh…Tom, I'm sorry." "It's okay, Libby. You were only doing what you thought was right. You were showing that good heart of yours again. And that's something I'll always you for, Cuz." Olivia smiled. "Now, as for you two, don't you think that you've hidden yourselves away long enough? Cause I sure do. I think you need to get out there and do your jobs. You could start by helping smooth over some of the heartbreaking bumps Grandma's got on her road of life." "Heartbreaking bumps?" Tom reminded his grandparents about his Grandpa Tom and then told them about what had happened to his father and uncles. "My God. We had no idea that all that had happened." Alice said. " Well it did. And you know what would've helped in those situations? Having her parents around to give her some love and encouragement…Look, I know you might think it's too late now, but it's not. You missed your chances to help Grandma with those situations, but it's not too late to do something about them. All you have to do is go talk to her…Please. At least try." "…We will, Tom. We will. It's time we bring an end to this. As soon as the storm passes, we're going to go to Vinny."


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Eventually, night fell upon the city of Nome. The chipmunks had no choice but to go to bed and pray that Tom and Olivia could weather the storm until they could come and find them in the morning. None of them slept very well, naturally, but got all the rest they could. The same went for Tom, Olivia and their grandparents. Come morning, both groups woke up with the sun. Cash and Theodore, being the fathers of the missing children, were elected to head out into the woods and try to find the kids. However, unbeknownst to the brothers, their children, along with their grandparents, were headed right for them. "Do you think they're okay, Cash?" Theodore asked as they trekked through the woods. "I'm sure they are. For now anyway. When we get a hold of them though…well, we'll see." Meanwhile, on the opposite side of the of forest, Tom and Olivia were telling their grandparents about their family. "Well, everyone sounds great, kids. But, there's one issue. How do we know who's who?" Charlie asked. "Oh, that's easy, Grandpa. We're all pretty much color coded." "Color coded?" "Yeah. See. Grandma Vinny's kids, our dads and uncles, all have their favorite colors, which they wear in some way all the time. And their wives, our moms and aunts, are the same way." "Okay. So, who's what color?" Alice asked. "Well, let's start with my part of the family." Tom said. "My dad, Cash, wears black all the time, just like me." 'Are you trying to emulate him?" Charlie asked. "Emulate? Oh, you mean 'be like'? Yeah, kind of. I mean, my dad is wicked cool. So, who wouldn't want to be like him?" Charlie nodded. "Now, where was I? Oh right. Okay, so you know my dad wears black. Well, my mom, Katrina, and my sister, Helen, both wear white." "White? All the time?" Alice asked. "Yup, all the time. They both say it's their favorite color clothing because it's the only one that looks good on them. And, I'll be the first to back that up. I've seen them wear other colors, and they just don't look right. So, with them, white clothes are the way to go. Oh, and don' think that they wear them for any other purpose other than looking good. Whatever funny ideas you might get, I'll tell you right now, are dead wrong." "Those thoughts are the furthest from our minds, Tom." Charlie assured his great grandson. Tom nodded. "Okay, now let's move on. Um, how's about Libby here's piece of the Seville familia?" "Hey, can I do this one, tom? I mean, it is my piece of la familia, like you said." "Sure, knock yourself out, cuz." "Okay, Grandma and Grandpa. All you need to know about part of the family is that we all like green. My dad, Theodore, wears dark green. My mom, Eleanor, wears light green. My little brother Ben, he wears dark green like dad. So, with my part of the family, just think green. And that's it." "Okay. Who's next?" "How's about good ol' Uncle Alvin?" Tom said. "Okay. "Alright, Uncle Alvin wears red. Lots and lots of red. Oh, and he always wears a red baseball cap. His son, Max, same way. Although, Max is a baby, so I guess he really doesn't have a choice. Anyway, Uncle Alvin and Max always wear red. Now, Uncle Alvin's wife, aunt Brittany, always wears pinks. Their daughter, my cousin Eliza, also wears pink." "Okay. Who's left?" "That would be Uncle Simon and his piece of the family. Uncle Simon and his part of the family, they're like Uncle Theodore's part. They all wear the same color. Only, instead of green, they wear blue. Uncle Simon, aunt Jeanette, their son Tony, and their infant daughter Karen. All of them wear some shade of blue. Also, they all wear glasses. Well, except Kary, cause she's too young. But, if she's anything like her parents and her big brother, she'll need them when she grows up." "Okay. Any other distinguishing features?" "Yeah, they're the tallest. Uncle Simon is the tallest of grandma Vinny's sons. Aunt Jeanette, the tallest of her daughter-in…whoa, that was close." "What?" "I almost said daughter-in-laws. See, our family prides itself on being tight nit. We're so close that we don't use the term in-laws. So, Grandma Vinny's son's wives aren't her daughter-in-laws in the family's eyes. They're her daughters. So, Aunt Jeanette is the tallest of Grandma Vinny's daughters. And, Tony's the tallest of her grandkids. He's a couple inches taller than me." "I see. Anything else?" "Uh, yeah. Tony's got this condition. I don't know what it's called, but it's caused him to have two different eye colors. Each eye is a different color. One eye is blue, like Uncle Simon's eyes, and the other is green, like aunt Jeanette's." "Well, that's different. What about Karen?" "She's normal. Both of her eyes are green, just like her mom's." "I see. Any one else you should tell us about?" "Well, there's Grandpa Xavier, Grandma Miller and Grandpa Dave." "And what do they look like?" "Well, first off, they aren't like us. They're human, not chipmunk." "Oh, right, I remember you telling us about Dave and Miss Miller. But, Xavier?" "He's that mister Franklin, who 'adopted' Grandma Vinny, that I told you about." 'Oh, I see. So, what do they look like?" "Well, Grandma's grey haired, obviously, and she pretty much always has her hair up in some kind of bun style. She's also kind of scatterbrained at times, but she's not dumb. Grandpa Xavier, he's grey haired too, and he's a little on the tall side for his age. Grandpa Dave, the guy we get our last name, Seville, from, is of average height for a man his age and he's got jet black hair." "Well, they shouldn't be hard to spot." "Yeah." "Anyone else?" "Well, that does it for our biological family." "That's it? Isn't Vinny here?' "Of course." 'Oh, thank God. You made it sound like she wasn't." "Oh, sorry about that. Yeah, Grandma's back in town with everyone else." "Anybody else come with you? Some one who's not family?" "Oh yeah we brought our…" Tom stopped in mid sentence. "What's wrong Tom?" Alice asked. "Shh, Grandma! I hear something." Tom listened to the noise and began nodding his head as he counted with his fingers. He got up six. "What's with the counting Tom?" Olivia asked. "I heard something and so I started listening more intently. I started hearing more and more sources of the same sound. There's six of some thing out there, stepping on twigs and downed tree branches. I don't know what they are, but they're closing in." "Oh, crap!" Charlie said. 'What is it, Grandpa?" Olivia asked. "I just remembered something. I saw it on the news the night before last. They were reporting a surge in wolf population out in the forest." "Wolves!" Olivia yelled. "Man, I hate wolves." Tom said. "Especially the were variety." He then mumbled. Then he heard the sound again, even closer this time. "Crap, they're heading right for us." He said. He spotted two large tree branches near by. He ran over, picked on up and broke it over his knee." "Libby, catch!" He yelled as he threw the two pieces to his cousin. Olivia caught the pieces and proceeded to hold them, by some branches on their sides, like tonfa. Tom then picked up the other branch and proceeded to hold it like a sword. "Here they come." Tom said, the noise now becoming loud enough for everyone to hear. "Yeah, I hear them now too. Grandma, Grandpa, stay behind us." "But your kids. We're the adults here." Charlie said. 'Yeah, but we know how to fight like crazy." Tom said in such a way that he convinced his grandparents to back down. No sooner had the elderly chipmunk couple backed off a respectable distance, than the wolves came out of the woods. Sure enough, there six of them. They were snarling at the young chipmunks in such a way that it was clear that they intended to them. "Let's get'em, Libby!" "Right!" The young munks charged at the wolves, just as the wolves charged them. The young munks fought the wolves off, trying desperately to convince the wolves that the meal wasn't worth the effort. Finally, after a ten minute fight, the wolves stopped attacking and ran away. "Yeah, you better run!" Olivia cheered. Tom covered his cousin's mouth. "Be quiet and listen Libby." He said. Olivia listened and she heard twigs and downed branches snapping. However, the snapping much louder. As if some much larger animal was stepping on them. "What is that?" "Whatever really scared off the wolves. I think they heard that, and decided not to stick around to see what it is. I suggest we follow their example." "Agreed. Grandma! Grandpa! Come on, let's go!" Charlie and Alice didn't move. "What's wrong?" Alice pointed behind Olivia. "Oh, crap. There's something really big and scary right behind me isn't there?" Alice and Charlie both nodded. Olivia turned around to see a large Grizzly bear standing there. Olivia couldn't move, for the sight of this bear had paralyzed her with fear. She could merely gulp. As the bear raised his paw up to swat Olivia down, Tom jumped up and kicked the bear in the stomach. The bear recoiled slightly from the impact of the kick. "Yo, Smokey!" Tom yelled. "If you wanna eat something, try me! Come on! Don't ya know that you should never eat the meat covered in green stuff? Come on, try me! Look at me, I'm in black. I'm the dark meat!" Tom even licked his own hand. 'Mmm, yummy! Tastes like chicken!" Tom's calling got the bear's attention. "Libby, snap out of it and run!" Tom called as he dodged the bear's attack. Tom continued to dodge the bear's attacks while Charlie and Alice ran and grabbed Olivia. "Take her and get out of here!" "Not without you!" Alice yelled. "Don't worry. I'm gonna keep him occupied until you get out of here. After that, I'm gonna ditch him and catch up! Now go!" Jus as the word go left Tom's mouth, the bear swatted him to the ground. 'Tom!" The grandparents shouted. The bear raised his paw to attack again. Tom knew he couldn't get out of the way. The bear's arm was too long. It gave him too much reach for tom to avoid the attack. So, Tom braced himself for the blow. However, it did not come. He looked up to see the bear looking around. Tom wondered what it was looking for. His answer came a second later, as he saw a large rock come flying right at the bear. It caught it right between the eyes. Tom looked to the source of the rocks. At the source stood Theodore and Cash. Theodore had a large rock in his right hand. Tom figured that his uncle was the one throwing the rocks. However, that didn't matter to him nearly as much as the fact his father and uncle were on the scene. 'Dad! Uncle Cash!" Olivia, who had finally come out of her shock, yelled. "Go to her, Theo. Smokey's mine." Cash said. "Right." Theodore ran over to his daughter. "You are in big trouble, young lady." "Yeah, I know, but…" "No buts!" "But Dad!" "I said no buts!" Olivia was about to try to reason with her father when she noticed her uncle walking right towards the bear. 'What is uncle Cash doing?" "His job. Rescuing Tom.. Just like my job is to protect you." Olivia watched her uncle. "Hello, Smokey." Cash said in a relatively dark tone of voice. "I'll bet you wanna eat him or something, don't you? Well, too bad. You can't have him. Cause he's my son and that means that his life is under my protection. So, if you want him, you have to go throw me. And frankly…" Cash cracked his neck and knuckles. ' I don't see that happening." The bear charged Cash. Cash jumped up and grabbed the back of the bear's head with his left hand. He used this hand hold as a pivot point, around which he rotated the rest of his body until he had his right arm wrapped around the bears neck. Cash cinched in the hold and thus had a sleeper hold perfectly applied to the bear. The bear thrashed and swung it's body around in all directions, trying to shake Cash off. However, Cash held on tight. The bear roared in anger. "That's it! Keep roaring! Tire yourself out faster!" Cash yelled. The bear began to become to light-headed, due to the lack of oxygen. It swayed and slammed it's head into a nearby tree. This promptly knocked it unconscious. It fell to the ground and, once there, Cash released his hold. "I'll bet you thought that you were the scary one." Cash said to the bear. "Well, now you know you were wrong. When one of my kids is in trouble, there is nothing on this planet scarier than me." Cash then walked over to his son. 'You okay?" He asked. "Yeah. Man, it's good to see you, dad." Cash merely stared at his son. 'Oh man. I'm starting to wish that the bear did eat me. Cause your looking at me like your gonna do worse." Cash shook his head. "No, I'm not. I'm not a monster. But, I am extremely angry with you, Thomas. You are in an enormous world of trouble." Tom climbed to his feet. 'Yeah, I know but…Look, just give me a few minutes to plead my case. Please?" "Hmph! Fine. You've got two minutes, starting now. Go." "Okay, well, first off, let me say to uncle Theodore, that Libby was only try to stop me from doing what I did. So, she really shouldn't be punished. Now, as for me, and what I did, well, I can say is 'why did we decide to come to Nome in the first place?'" "To find mom's mom and dad." Cash answered. "Exactly." "What are you getting at, Thomas?" "We did it, dad. Libby and me. We found them." "What?" "Those two standing over there by Libby? That's Grandma and Grandpa!" Cash's expression turned from anger to shock as he looked over to his grandparents. He walked towards them. 'Are you really who Tom says you are?" Cash asked. "He called me Tom in stead of Thomas. Maybe dad's calmed down a little. Maybe I'm not dead meat just yet." Tom thought. Alice smiled at her grandson as she answered his question. "Yes, we are, um, let's see…black clothes. Cash, right?" Cash nodded. "This is incredible." Cash said. "You can say that again, Cash." Said a stunned Theodore. Alice turned to her green clad grandson. 'Let's see. Dark green clothes. Your Theodore, right? Nice to meet you. I'm your grandma Alice, and this is your Grandpa Charlie." Charlie nodded to Theodore. "Uh, hi." was all Theodore could say. Alice nodded and turned back to Cash. 'Listen, Cash, sweetheart. You and Theodore shouldn't be mad at your kids." "Why not?" "Because, really, this is our fault." 'Huh?" "Allow me to explain.' And explain she did. "So you see, if we hadn't run way, none of this would've ever happened." Cash stood for a moment. He was still angry at his son, but he felt too happy right now to stay mad enough to punish him. "Tom!' Cash yelled. "Yeah, dad?" "If you and Libby apologize to every one when we get back, we'll see if we can't smooth this over and put it behind us. Deal?" 'Deal! That cool with you, Libby?" "Of course! Um, that is all it'll take, right dad?" "Sounds fine to me." "Cool!" "Alright then. It's decided." Cash said. "Now, then. Let's get out of here. Before something else shows up, wanting a talking chipmunk for breakfast." "Right." The other munks agreed. The family began walking back towards town, with Cash taking point. Cash looked back to his son. 'You know, Tom. You really scared Roxy. She's been worried sick about you." 'Yeah?' "Yeah. You know, I think she was more worried about you than even you mom and I. So you'd better apologize to her more than anyone else." "Right." "Who's Roxy?" Alice asked. "Tom's girlfriend. Her and her family came with us to help look for you guys." 'Oh. Well, that was certainly nice of the…wait a second. Girlfriend!"


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

**Cash and company eventually reached the front of the hotel and entered inside. The whole family was in the lobby. Once they spotted them, the family's collective eyes narrowed angrily at Tom and Olivia. "Hold on!" Cash shouted as he noticed the family's eyes. "Before you get all up in a huff, let me say this. Theodore and I have learned the truth about what happened yesterday. So, please, listen to me before you let anger take you." The family's eyes shifted to Cash. "Man, he's a great public speaker." Charlie thought as he watched his grandson work. Meanwhile, Tom was thinking 'Dad must really love me, cause here he is. Trying to pull my bacon out of the fryer. And…Yes! It's working. Mom's actually starting to smile!' while he watched the scene. He then noticed his mother wave to him. She was gesturing for him to come over to her. Tom nodded and began to walk towards his mother. However, he stopped after just two steps, for a thought had dawned on him. "I haven't talked to Roxy yet. I need to talk to her first." Tom raised his right arm towards his mother and then extended his right index finger, letting her know that he needed a minute. Tom then scanned the crowd for Roxy. He finally found her and walked over to her. "Hey, Roxy." "Is that all you have to say? 'hey, Roxy'? Is that it?" "Well, no…" "Do you have any idea how much I worried about you?" "Somewhat." "Yeah, well, I bet you didn't care. You just do whatever you want, never considering how I feel. You march into dangerous surgeries, charge into buildings with bombs on the roof, and you just got back from marching into the middle of a wild animal infested forest, in the middle of a freaking snow storm!" "Roxy, everything you just said had to be done. The surgery? That had to be done, and it seemed that only I could do it. So, because I love you, I did it. I saved Rex's life. Now, as for the bomb topped buildings thing, that had to be done too. The Wilshire's had to be stopped, and I had a bone to pick with them. Andy saved my life, and sacrificed his own, in order to stop the Wilshire's forces. Andy sacrificed himself, to give me the chance to continue living. And I took advantage of that chance, but not before I settled the score with the Wilshire's and made things as close to right as they're gonna get. And now, the last one, the forest issue." "Let me guess, that had to be done too?" "Well, maybe it could've gone better, but, well, you know, heat of the moment, one thing leads to another and all that stuff. Okay, I'll admit that I didn't think about what I did yesterday. I just acted, because I felt like I had to. I saw my opportunity to solve the mystery that brought us here and to make Grandma happy walking away. So, I ran after it. But, you see? I wasn't thinking about myself there, or any of the other times. I was thinking about others." "Yeah, but you obviously didn't think about me when you ran off this last time! You made me worry, Tom! And I hate to worry. Especially about those close to me! I.. I…ah, damn it! I can't even think straight anymore. I …I… ooohhhh!" Roxy stepped up right into Tom's face and began to pound on his chest with her fists, while crying. "I hate you1 I hate you!" Tom closed his arms around Roxy, making her stop her pounding. "No, you don't. I know that. Your just upset. And, for making you upset, I apologize. I'm sorry, Roxy, okay? From the bottom of my heart, I'm sorry. I never meant to hurt you like this. You know I'd never hurt you intentionally." "Yeah, I know." "and you know I love you, right?" "Yeah." "Well?" "Well, what?" "how do you feel about me?" "Right now?" 'Yeah." "I'm mad, but I still love you. I always will. It's just that….well,, you remember what I said? About what I want to do way off in the future?" "You mean the marrying me thing?" "Yes. I still want that for us. But, if you go and get yourself killed at an early age, then all my hopes will be dashed. So, please, Tom, for our future's sake, try to think more and stay out of unnecessary trouble, okay?" "Yeah, okay." Roxy brought her arms up and returned Tom's hug. "I love you, Tom." "I love you too, Roxy." Tom then turned his attention to the Seville family. "I love all of you too. My family, my never failing support system. I love you all too. So you know I'd never intentionally try to worry you. But, I did, and I'm sorry for that. Alright?" The family nodded. "And these kids are only nine? Man, that sounded like a couple of teenagers." Alice thought. Suddenly, as if sensing her thinking about him, Tom's head snapped up and looked over to Alice and Charlie. "Oh, right. You guys haven't been introduced yet, have you? Sorry about that. I forgot, heh, heh. Anyways, no time like the present. Um, how should I do this? Um…oh1 Hey, Grandma Vinny!" "What is it dear?" "Come over here, please." Well alright." Vinny walked over to her grandson. "okay, now follow me." Tom walked his Grandmother over to her parents. 'Grandma, I know you might think it's not possible but, these two, are your mom and dad." "What?" Vinny yelled. "Hello, Vinny, dear." Alice said in a soothing voice. She was trying to calm her daughter down. 'Um, H-hello, um…. Are you really my mother and father?" "Yes, dear. We are. We swear we are. And we'll take any test you want us to take until you believe us. That is, if you still don't believe." "Well, if your willing to go that far to prove you are who say you are, then you must be telling the truth. You really are my mother and father." Charlie and Alice both nodded. Vinny's eyes watered as it all finally sank in, and she lost control of her emotions. She cried out loudly and threw a tight hug around both of her parents' necks. "I've missed you both so much! There were so many things I need to learn that Aunt Cheryl couldn't teach me. She did a great job raising me, but there are some things only a mother can teach her daughter. I missed out on so much. Why have you been gone for so long?" 'We knew it'd come to that sooner or later." Charlie said. "Yes, and now's that time you learn the truth. It's over due and you deserve it." Alice said. Alice proceeded to tell her daughter everything. The family listened in. Vinny's, along with most of the family's, eyes opened up wide in hock as they listened. Eventually, Alice finished the tale. 'So, you see, dear, we didn't want to give you up, but we knew you wouldn't be safe with us. That's why we left you with Cheryl and left you all alone for all these years." "Is that the only reason, Grandma?" Tom yelled. "Oh, right. There was another reason." 'What was it?" Vinny asked. "We..we became scared of you." "What?" "We once realized just how long we'd been gone and then we got to thinking about coming back. But, then we got worried about how you'd react to us coming back. We were afraid you'd reject us. And, since you were all we had left, we couldn't have bared that." "That sound familiar to you in any way, Cash?" Alvin asked. "You mean how it's like mom's special attachment to me, because I look the most like dad?" "Bingo." "Yeah, it's sort of like that." Meanwhile, Vinny stood silent. 'Well, dear? Do you resent us?" Alice asked her daughter. 'No." "what?" "I'm sort of guilty of the same thing, in a couple of ways. I can't point the finger at you, because there'd be a lot of other fingers pointing back at me. And besides, I don't resent you anyway. All I ever wanted from you is to know you and make you a part of my family." Vinny said, stretching her arms to the sides to display her family. "Oh, Vinny!" Alice cried as she threw her arms around her daughter. 'Oh course, we'll be apart of your family. We love you, we always have. So of course we'll be a part of your family." "That's great! Really great!" Vinny yelled, returning her mother's hug. The family smiled at this scene. "So, mom, can I ask you something?" Vinny asked her mother. "Sure, what is it, dear?" "Will you come back with us to California?" Alice looked to her husband. "What do you say, Charlie?" "Sure we will, Vinny. There's nothing here for us anymore anyway. So why would we want to stay here?" Alice nodded. "We'll go where ever you go, dear." "thank you! Um, but, you'll need a place to stay. Um, Xavier?" 'I'm already on it, Vin. They'll have a place near my mansion, so they can come visit whenever they want and vice-versa. That is, unless you want to move in with them." "No, I'll stay with you, Xavier. No offense, mom and dad. I just really hate moving." "Oh me too." Charlie said. Everyone laughed. Suddenly, Dave's watch began to beep. "Oh crap!" "What is it, Dave?" "We have to get a move on! I set this watch to beep at exactly ten o-clock, the exact time we'd need to leave for the concert hall you'll be performing at tonight." "When did you do that, Dave?" Simon asked. 'Yesterday evening, before Tom and Olivia took off. I forgot to turn it off." "We'll it's a good thing you did. Come, people! We're on the clock! Let's get going!" Alvin cried. Everyone started to head off. 'What's going on?" Alice asked Vinny. "Just follow us and you'll see." later that evening. "Thank you, Nome1 You've been a wonderful audience!" Brittany yelled into her ear piece. "Now, I've got a question for you. At our last charity concert, the people wanted to hear an encore from our kids. So, I wanna know, do you all want that too? Do you wanna see our prides and joys one more time?" The crowd roared back a yes. 'Well, then, so be it. Ladies and gentlemen, the new munks!" The chipmunks left the stage and their kids took it. 'Hey, everybody. Good to see you again." Eliza said. The crowd cheered. "You know, we have some very special guests backstage tonight. Believe it or not, we have our long lost, great grandparents here tonight!" The crowd roared. 'So, this song is dedicated to them and all the rest of our family. Hit it!" The girls opened the song. "Everyone can see we're together. As we walk on by. (FLY!) and we fly just like birds of a feather. I won't tell no lie.(ALL!) all of the people around us they say 'Can they be that close?' Just let me state for the record. We're giving love in a family dose." "We are family. I got all my sisters with me. We are family. Get up everybody and sing!" The boys chimed in at this point. 'We are family. I got all my brothers with me. We are family. Get up everybody and sing!" The boys then took over the next verse. "Living life is fun and we've just begun, To get our share of the world's delights. (HIGH!) high hopes we have for the future, And our goal's in sight. (WE!) no we don't get depressed. Here's what we call our golden rule. Have faith in you and the things you do. You won't go wrong. This is our family Jewel!" The new munks repeated the chorus a few times before they hit a music only section. A thought dawned on Tom and waved Eliza over to him. He told her his idea, she nodded in agreement and they ran off the stage into the backstage area. This confused the crowd momentarily. However, all was made clear when the young munks came back carrying Karen and Max. Once they had all the cousins on the stage, the new munks finished out the song, and the night, to the thunderous roar of applause and cheers. "So, now what do we do?" Charlie asked. "well, here's the plan, Grandpa." Simon said. 'We're going to back to our hotel, and your going to go back to where ever it is your staying. We'll pack all our things, and you'll do the same. Then, tomorrow, we head home to Hollywood." "And we'll all live happily ever after." Alvin added. "I like that plan. Let's do it." "With pleasure."**


End file.
